>R 3403 
Z5 G3 
)opy 1 



NEW 
ROBINSON 
CRUSOE 

GJLSON GARDNER 





Class 

Bool 
GprigMK . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A NEW 
ROBINSON CRUSOE 

A New Version of His Life 

and Adventures 
With an Explanatory Note 

by 

GILSON GARDNER 




NEW YORK 

HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE 

1920 



COPYRIGHT, I920, BY 
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, Inc. 



©CIA571878 



Mft -4 A* 



A NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE 



EXPLANATORY NOTE 

The real Robinson Crusoe, as everybody knows, 
was a pious buccaneer named Alexander Selkirk, 
who, while cruising the South Seas in the armed 
frigate Cinque Ports, had difficulties with his supe- 
rior officer, Captain Thomas Stradling, and was by 
him marooned on the Island of Juan Fernandez, a 
small body of land in the Pacific Ocean in latitude 
33 40' and longitude 78 52' west, about no leagues 
from the coast of Chili and 440 to the north of Cape 
Horn. On this island Selkirk lived, deprived of all 
human society, for a period of four years and four 
months, at the end of which time he was rescued 
by another buccaneer, Captain Woodes Rogers, in 
His Majesty's privateer, the Duke of Bristol, Eng. } 
with whom Selkirk joined as mate and resumed his 
trade of buccaneer. 

The solitary life on his island, by all accounts, 
had done Selkirk good; for aside from his own 
protestations of religion, it is related by Captain 



2 A New Robinson Crusoe 

Rogers that the treatment accorded by Selkirk and 
his men to certain Spanish ladies who were deprived 
of their personal jewelry as an incident in the raid 
on Guyaquil was of a character so unusual at the 
hands of pirates as to elicit wonder as well as 
pleasure among the gentle victims, so much so that 
on the return of Selkirk's party from looting oper- 
ations further up the stream, they were received 
by the ladies without fear, who "even prepared food 
for them and a cask of very acceptable wine." 

"This excellent trait," says Howell in his life of 
Selkirk, "can only be attributed to the command 
religion had obtained over all his actions." 

The observances of religion were by no means un- 
common among the buccaneers, as appears from the 
account of Rogers' capture of his most important 
prize, the Manila ship Nostra Senora de la Incar- 
nacion Disengani, rechristened by him the Bach- 
elor. 

"Before the action began," says Howell, "as there 
were no spirits on board, a large kettle of chocolate 
was made and given to the crew in its place, and 
then they went to prayers. Before they had con- 
cluded the enemy commenced their fire." 

This was a good fight, "the ships lying yard arm 
and yard arm, pouring in their broadsides as fast as 



A New Robinson Crusoe 3 

they could fire." And when she was taken it was 
found "she had twenty guns, twenty pateraroes, all 
of brass, and ninety-three men, whereof nine were 
killed, ten wounded and a good many blown up and 
burned with powder." 

The pious pirates circumnavigated the globe and 
finally brought their loot, including the Bachelor 
frigate, valued at 170,000 pounds, safely back to 
England, where Alexander Selkirk received his 
share. He was thus able to live the life of a gen- 
tleman and after a short visit to his old home in 
Largo, Fife County, Scotland, he married and went 
to London, where he lived some ten years. 

Selkirk's long residence on the uninhabited island 
made him, on his arrival in London, an object of in- 
terest to the alert news gatherers of that day. Dick 
Steele interviewed him and wrote a seven-column 
article, published in the Englishman of December 3, 
1 713. He spells the name Selcraig, which was as 
it appears in the church records at Largo. Captain 
Edward Cook also wrote an account of Selkirk's 
unusual experience in his two-volume, "Voyage to 
the South Sea and Around the World," published 
in 1 71 2, as did Captain Woodes Rogers, whose ship 
was Selkirk's means of rescue. It was not until 
1 7 19, four years after Selkirk's return to England, 



4 A New Robinson Crusoe 

that Daniel Defoe published his celebrated novel, 
"The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." 

It is commonly supposed that Defoe never saw 
Selkirk, but took the hint for this exploit in im- 
aginative writing from current accounts in Cook's 
and Rogers' voyages and Sir Richard Steele's ar- 
ticle in the Englishman. 

That the contrary is the fact would appear from 
a manuscript which has recently turned up among 
the personal effects of the great nephew of Selkirk, 
the impecunious teacher in the village school at Ca- 
nonmills, Scotland, mentioned by Howell, who in- 
herited Selkirk's personal belongings, including his 
staff and his battered flip-can, which accompanied 
Selkirk on his voyage and during the lonesome 
years on the uninhabited island. This manuscript 
purports to be the joint work of Selkirk and Defoe. 
It is in some respects a very different product from 
the Crusoe novel. In fact, the difference is so 
marked that those who first examined it were dis- 
posed to set it down as a posthumous product, if not 
an arrant fraud. The proprietor of the book-stall 
in Edinburgh, where it was found, says there is no 
question that it was among papers turned out of an 
old chest which had reposed many years in the loft 
of the cottage in Canonmills, where John Selkirk, 



A New Robinson Crusoe 5 

the great grand nephew, lived and died. That is as 
far as authentication goes. 

Why the joint manuscript should have been dis- 
carded is easy to conjecture. There is in the orig- 
inal (if it be so) a distinct absence of the religious 
homily which, mingled with the adventure, did much 
to make the published Crusoe story so acceptable 
to the public. In this early collaboration the stress 
is laid on the economic problem of an individual in 
Selkirk's situation. To him his island world be- 
came an economic microcosm wherein he found, re- 
duced to simplest terms, all the elements of the prob- 
lems which make up the economics of the most elab- 
orate civilization. Every new experience on his 
island contributed something to his analysis and 
conclusions, and it is these analyses and conclusions, 
instead of the religious homiletics, which make up 
the background of this earlier work. 

In 1 7 19 Defoe needed money. His activities as 
a political pamphleteer had landed him in Newgate. 
The Tory members of the House of Parliament had 
caused his works to be burned at the hands of the 
common hangman, and he, poor man, had been 
made to stand in the pillory. The publication of 
Selkirk's economic heresies — for they no doubt 
would have been so regarded in that more ignor- 



6 A New Robinson Crusoe 

ant age — certainly would have added to troubles 
which were already quite sufficient. So Defoe ap- 
parently decided to discard what he may have looked 
upon as Selkirk's rather tiresome economic views, 
and by adding adventure and flavor of that brand 
of piety most likely to be approved, to secure for 
his literary product a more ready market. 

The sale of "Crusoe" justifies Defoe's business 
judgment, for the proceeds met all immediate needs 
and furnished a comfortable settlement for the re- 
mainder of his life. 

Gilson Gardner. 



LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
ROBINSON CRUSOE 

By Daniel Defoe and Alexander Selkirk 

CHAPTER I 
EXTRACTS FROM CRUSOE'S JOURNAL 

Note: In some respects this MSS. is identical with 
the novel as first published. The editor has thought 
best, therefore, to avoid tedious duplication, giving the 
story only in briefest outline and setting out at large 
those comments and conclusions in which this work 
differs from the one so well known to all. 

September 30, i6jp. 
I, poor, miserable Robinson Crusoe, being ship- 
wrecked during a terrible storm in the offing, 
came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, 
which I called the Island of Despair; all the rest of 
the ship's company being drowned, and myself al- 
most dead. 

All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting my- 
self at the dismal circumstances I was brought to, 
namely, I had neither food, house, clothes, weapon 



8 A New Robinson Crusoe 

nor place to fly to, and in despair of any relief, saw 
nothing but death before me, either that I should 
be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages 
or starved to death for want of food. At the ap- 
proach of night I slept in a tree for fear of wild 
creatures, but slept soundly, although it rained all 
night. 

October i. — In the morning I saw to my great 
surprise the ship had floated with the high tide and 
was driven on shore again much nearer the island. 
I hoped if the wind abated I might get on board and 
get some food and necessaries out of her for my 
relief. At length the weather permitting I went 
upon the sand as far as I could and swam on board. 
As it turned out the quarter was free and all that 
was in that part was dry ; for you may be sure my 
first work was to search and see what was spoiled 
and what was free; and first I found that all the 
ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the 
water: and being very well disposed to eat I went 
to the bread room and filled my pockets with bis- 
cuits, and ate them as I went about other things. 

From ist of October to the 24th. — All these days 
spent in making several voyages with the raft I had 
constructed to get all I could out of the ship, which 
I brought on shore every tide of flood. Much rain 



A New Robinson Crusoe 9 

also these days, though with some intervals of fair 
weather, for it seems this is the rainy season. 

In my labors at plundering the ship I first got 
three seamen's chests which I opened and emptied 
and lowered on my raft. The first I filled with pro- 
visions, namely bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five 
pieces of dried goat's flesh, which we lived much 
upon, and a little remainder of European corn 
which had been laid by for some fowls which we 
brought to sea with us; but the fowls were killed. 
There had been some barley and wheat together but 
to my great disappointment I found that the rats 
had eaten or spoiled it all. 

Next I started rummaging for clothes, of which 
I found enough, but took no more than I wanted 
for present use, for I had other things which my 
eye was more upon, as first, tools to work with on 
shore, and it was after long searching that I found 
out the carpenter's chest which, indeed, was a very 
useful prize to me and much more valuable than a 
shipload of gold would have been at that time. I 
got it down to my raft, even whole as it was, with- 
out losing time to look into it, for I knew in general 
what it contained. 

My next care was for ammunition and arms. 
There were two very good fowling pieces in the 



io A New Robinson Crusoe 

great cabin and two pistols; these I secured first, 
with some powder horns and a small bag of shot 
and two old rusty swords. I knew there were bar- 
rels of powder in the ship but knew not where our 
gunmen had stored them; but with much search I 
found them, two of them dry and good, the third 
had taken water; those two I got to the raft with 
the arms. 

With many pains and to my utmost delight this 
cargo was at last got safely to shore and unloaded 
on the beach, where with sails and stakes I made 
all safe and dry. 

On subsequent voyages to the ship with my raft 
I succeeded in bringing away many things which 
later proved of great use. Among these were a 
grindstone, three bags full of nails and spikes, a 
great screw jack, a dozen or two of hatchets. From 
the gunner's stores I got two iron crows, two bar- 
rels of musket balls, a large bag full of small shot 
and a great roll of sheet lead. Besides these things 
I took all the men's clothes I could find, a spare 
fore topsail, hammock and some bedding. 

By now I had discovered that the land on which 
I was cast away was indeed an island, for on the 
second day, taking the fowling piece and pistols, I 
traveled for discovery to the top of a hill I had 



A New Robinson Crusoe n 

observed not above a mile from where I was. 
There I saw my fate, to my great affliction, namely, 
that I was in an island environed every way with 
the sea, no land to be seen except some rocks which 
lay a great way off, and two small islands less than 
this which lay about three leagues to the west. 

I found also that the island was barren and as I 
saw reason to believe uninhabited, except by wild 
beasts, of which however I saw none. I saw an 
abundance of fowls but knowing not their kinds 
still concluded, and rightly, that many of them were 
good for food. Also on going ashore, on landing 
my first raft-load, I saw sitting on a seaman's chest 
a creature which was like a cat, which sat and 
looked me full in the face. And when I threw her a 
biscuit she ate it and made as if she would have 
had more; but not caring to spare from my store 
for such a purpose, she presently trotted off. 

What to do with myself at night I knew not, nor 
indeed where to rest, for I was afraid to lie down 
on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast 
might devour me, though, as I afterward found, 
there was no need for such fears. 

However, as well as I could I spread one of the 
sails for a tent and barricaded myself round with 
the chests and boards that I had brought on shore 



12 A New Robinson Crusoe 

and made a kind of hut for those nights' lodging. 
As for water I had already discovered that there 
were streams of fresh water in abundance and I 
had no difficulty in bringing down a fowl, which 
was all that could be desired. 

Still laboring at plundering the ship, for I knew 
I must avail of the calm and auspicious weather, 
after I had gathered up all I could move of cables, 
hawsers, with the sprit sail-yard, the mizen yard 
and all the iron work I could move, I came upon a 
locker with drawers in it in which I found two 
razors, a pair of scissors, with some ten or a dozen 
of good knives and forks; in another I found about 
thirty-six pounds value in money, some European 
coin, some Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold 
and some silver. 

I smiled to myself at the sight of the money* 
"Oh, drug!" said I aloud, "What art thou good 
for? Thou art not worth to me — no, not the tak- 
ing off the ground. One of those knives is worth 
all this heap; I have no manner of use for thee; 
ever remain where thou art and go to the bottom 
as a creature whose life is not worth saving!" 

However, upon second thought I took it away and 
wrapping all this in a piece of canvas, I began to 
think of making another raft. 



A New Robinson Crusoe 13 

That night I lay in the little tent I had erected 
on the shore, very secure with all my wealth about 
me. It blew very hard all night and in the morning 
when I looked out, behold, no more ship was to be 
seen! 



CHAPTER II 

My thoughts now were wholly employed about 
securing myself against either savages, if they 
should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the 
island ; and I had many thoughts of the method how 
to do this and what kind of a*dwelling to make — ■ 
whether I should make a cave in the earth, or a tent 
upon the earth, and, in short, I resolved upon both, 
the manner and description of which it may not be 
improper to give an account of. 

I consulted several things in my situation which 
I found would be proper for me : — First, health 
and fresh water; secondly, shelter from the heat 
of the sun; thirdly, security from ravenous crea- 
tures, whether man or beast ; fourthly, a view to the 
sea, that if God sent any ship in sight I might not 
lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which 
I was not willing to banish all my expectations yet. 

In search for a proper place for this, I found a 
little plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front 
toward this plain was steep as a house-side, so that 
nothing could come down upon me from the top; 

14 



r A New Robinson Crusoe 15 

on the side of this rock there was a hollow place 
worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a 
cave, but there was not really any cave or way into 
the rock at all. 

On the flat of the green just before this hollow 
place, I resolved to pitch my tent; this plain was 
not above a hundred yards broad, and about twice 
as long and lay like a green before my door and 
at the end of it descended irregularly every way 
down into the lo\* grounds by the sea. It was on 
the northwest side of the hill, so that I was sheltered 
from the heat every day until it came to a west and 
by south sun, or thereabouts, which in those coun- 
tries is near setting. 

Before I set up my tent I drew half a circle be- 
fore the hollow place, which took in about ten yards 
in its diameter from its beginning and ending. In 
this half circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, 
driving them into the ground till they stood very 
firm, like piles, the biggest end being out of the 
ground about five feet and a half, and sharpened 
on the top. The two rows did not stand above six 
inches from one another. These I laced with cables 
taken from the ship and braced inside until it was 
so strong that neither man nor beast could get into 
or over it. This cost me a great deal of time and 



1 6 A New Robinson Crusoe 

labor, especially to cut the poles in the woods, 
bring them to the place and drive them into the 
earth. 

And it was while engaged in this work that I 
began to ponder and to ask myself certain ques- 
tions, such as Why does man work? Is work a 
blessing or a curse? And could there be a world 
in which man might not work? And the only an- 
swers which I found at hand were these: That 
man works to secure his food, or to shelter him- 
self against the elements or against ravenous beasts 
or other men, as even I now was doing; that the 
vigor of exercise and the increased circulation of 
the blood bring about an uplifted physical sense 
which in a manner resembled the pleasures of intox- 
ication, though it differed from that produced by 
wine in that there are no ill effects following, but 
on the contrary a restful relaxation which is quite 
unknown to those who lead a sedentary life. But 
as to why all men are not engaged throughout the 
world in constructing shelters from the elements, as 
I was doing here, I did not at once perceive. 

The entrance to my shelter yard I made to be not 
by a door but by a short ladder to go over the 
top, which ladder when I was in I lifted over after 
me. And so I was completely fenced in and forti- 



A New Robinson Crusoe 17 

fled as I thought from all the world and conse- 
quently slept secure at night; though it afterward 
appeared there was no need for all this caution from 
the enemies that I apprehended danger from. 

Into this stockade I brought, with infinite labor, 
all my riches, my provisions, ammunitions, stores 
and plunder from the ship and I spread a sail so as 
to make a tent, which with a tarpaulin I made 
double and hung a hammock for a bed, and so was 
in all ways very comfortable. 

When I had done this I began to work my way 
into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones 
I dug down, piled them about my fence in the na- 
ture of a terrace. And the rock proved to be of 
a soft texture most easily dug into, so that with the 
labor of many days I dug out an excellent cave, 
which served me like a cellar to my house. And 
here I stowed my most precious things, but not my 
powder, for the thought came to me during a fright- 
ful thunderclap: What if my powder should be, 
ignited! For it was the means for my defense and 
my food. So thereupon I divided it into almost a 
hundred small parcels, which I placed in holes in 
rocks and places which I carefully marked. 

And while thus engaged I was busied with the 
thought of the helplessness of man without some in- 



1 8 A New Robinson Crusoe 

strument of invention and precision in his hand. 
Without a gun what would I do? Or having fire- 
arms and no powder, how equally helpless! Fowl 
there might be all about me, but how could I bring 
them to hand? Stones I could not hurl with suffi- 
cient accuracy to bring them down. For the little 
store of meat, the dried goat's flesh, I was indebted 
to other men who had bred or killed the goats. And 
I set about conjecturing what would happen to me 
when my ship stores of food were exhausted. Of 
which I had much of interest later to relate. 

In the interval of time when building my forti- 
fication and digging the cave I went out once every, 
day with my gun, as well to divert myself as to see 
if I could kill anything for food and to acquaint 
myself with what the island produced. The first 
time I went out I presently discovered that there 
were goats in the island, which was a great satis- 
faction to me, and though I found them shy, sub- 
tle and swift of foot, I was able in time to get near 
enough to shoot them. Though I did not know it at 
the time, I found in later years that the presence 
of these goats was a happening of pure chance, they 
being the descendants of a herd brought to the is- 
land about an hundred years before by a Spanish 
pilot who was the discoverer of the island and who 



A New Robinson Crusoe 19 

tried to colonize it, but being unable to secure title 
or the protection of his government, was compelled 
to leave the place with those he had brought with 
him. 

The first time I came within shooting distance 
of the goats I brought down a she goat which had 
a little kid by her which she gave suck to, which 
grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell the 
kid stood stock still by her till I came and took her 
up, and not only so but when I carried the old one 
with me on my shoulders, the kid followed me quite 
to my enclosure ; so I took it into my enclosure and 
hoped to bring it up tame, but I had no milk and 
it could not eat, so I was forced to kill it. These 
furnished me with food for some time and the 
happening furnished me with an idea which I later 
carried out, namely, to lame a young she goat and, 
having captured her, to tame and breed her. But it 
was only after I had thought to dig a pit-fall and 
trap the goats in a place I knew they were soon to 
go that my plan was carried to success. 

Of which I will have more to say at the proper 
time. For the present there were other things which 
more pressingly demanded thought and labor. 



CHAPTER III 

I have spoken of my habitation as the Island of 
Despair, and so it seemed those melancholy days 
when I looked about me and finding all my com- 
panions drowned and myself likely to be destroyed 
by beasts or savages or to die for want of food, 
saw in the land a place for my imprisonment and 
in the sea a barrier from all a man most cherishes 
in this world. But every day as it passed had 
served in part to allay my fears, and in part to dis- 
close to me some aspects of my surroundings which 
in my violence of grief I had overlooked. Being 
on the southerly side of the equator the fall months 
of October were here spring and soon after my ar- 
rival I found nature taking on her most gracious 
forms. And this matter of the season was favor- 
able to me also because here in the months of July 
and August the nights are cold so that one wants 
fire and shelter and occasionally it happens that 
there are slight touches of the frost and a flurry 
now and then of snow. But in the spring and sum- 
mer months my tent was ample shelter and I had 

20 



A New Robinson Crusoe 21 

time to prepare and to lay up a few stores for the 
more stormy days. 

And as my mind became more composed and I 
had eyes to see the beauties which were spread be- 
fore me I apprehended that the place was filled 
with graceful charms. So impressed was I with 
them that I took the trouble to write down in the 
diary which I had maintained while ink and paper 
lasted, the following description: 

'The woods which cover most of the steepest 
hills are free from all bushes and underwood and 
offer an easy passage through every part of them, 
and the irregularities of the hills and precipices in 
the northern part of the island necessarily trace by 
their various combinations a great number of ro- 
mantic valleys, most of which have a stream of the 
clearest water running through them, that tumbles 
into cascades from rock to rock as the bottom of the 
valleys by the course of the neighboring hills is at 
any time broken into a sudden sharp descent. Some 
particular spots occur in these valleys, where the 
shade and fragrance of the contiguous woods, the 
loftiness of the overhanging rocks, and the trans- 
parency and frequent falls of the neighboring 
streams present scenes of such elegance and dig- 
nity as are but rarely paralleled in any other part 



22 *A 'New 'Robinson Crusoe 

of the globe. It is on this place, perhaps, that the 
simple productions of unarrested nature may be said 
to excel all the fictitious descriptions of the most an- 
imated imagination." 

The above was written some eighteen months af- 
ter my landing on the island. By that time having 
food in abundance, a climate healthy and pleasant, 
producing also by reason of the labor I was con- 
strained to perform a bodily vigor I had before not 
known, I found under the serene sky and temper- 
ate air that my life was like, as it were, a continual 
feast. I began to take delight in everything about 
me, being as happy now as I had before been miser- 
able. I ornamented my abode with fragrant 
branches cut from the spacious wood near which 
it was situated and in this delicious bower, resting 
from labor or the chase, fanned with such soft 
breezes as the poets tell of, I had repose which was 
equal to the most exquisite sensual pleasures. 

But before I arrived at a state of mind to enjoy 
all these sendings of Providence I had many prob- 
lems to solve. Notwithstanding all the things I 
had gathered from the wreck there were a few 
things whose lack I greatly felt. There was no 
shovel to dig with or to remove the earth; I also 
lacked a spade, a pick-axe and needles, pins and 



A New Robinson Crusoe 23 

thread. As for linen I had in the beginning some, 
but soon learned to want that without much diffi- 
culty. A fire I produced in the primitive fashion by 
rubbing together two pieces of wood of sufficient 
hardness with vigor for a long time, but in the be- 
ginning I lacked a place for my fire, a spit and some- 
thing to pass for an oven in which I might bake 
a substitute for the bread I had from the ship 
stores, but which would not last forever. 

Meantime to keep track of the days and the 
months I had set up a large post on the shore where 
I had landed and making it with another piece in 
the form of a cross cut in it every day a notch with 
my knife and every seventh notch was as long again 
as the rest so that I might not forget the Sabbath 
from the working days, and I inscribed upon it the 
30th of September, 1659, the day I landed on this 
island. And I divided the months with a still longer 
notch and each year from the other. 

And now I began to apply myself to make such 
necessary things as I found I most wanted, particu- 
larly a chair and a table, for without these things 
I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in 
this world. I could not write or eat or do several 
things with so much pleasure without a table. 

So I went to work; and here I must needs ob- 



24 A New Robinson Crusoe 

serve that as reason is the substance and original 
of the mathematics, so by stating and squaring 
everything by reason and by making the most ra- 
tional judgment of things, every man may be in 
time master of every mechanical art. I had never 
handled a tool in my life, and yet in time, by labor, 
application and contrivance, I found at last that 
I wanted nothing but I could have made it, after 
a fashion, especially if I had had tools; however, 
I made abundance of things without tools, or with 
simple tools and some with no more tools than an 
adze or a hatchet, which perhaps were never made 
that way before, and that with infinite labor. For 
example, if I wanted a board I had no other way 
but to cut down a tree, set it on edge before me 
and hew it flat on either side with my axe till I 
had brought it to be as thin as a plank and then 
dub it smooth with my adze. It is true by this 
method I could make but one board out of a tree; 
but this I had no remedy for but patience, any 
more than I had for the prodigious deal of time and 
labor which it took me to make a. plank or board; 
but my time and labor were of little worth, and so 
they were as well employed one way as another. 

However, I made me a table and a chair, as I 
observed above, out of short pieces of plank I had 



A New Robinson Crusoe 25 

brought from the ship ; but when I had wrought out 
some boards I made large shelves of the breadth of 
a foot and a half one over the other all along one 
side of the cave, to lay all my tools, nails and iron 
work, and, in a word, to separate everything at large 
in their places, that I might come easily at them. 
I knocked pieces into the wall of rock to hang my 
guns and all things that would hang up. So that 
had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general 
magazine of necessary things. And I had every- 
thing so ready at my hand that it was a great pleas- 
ure to me to see all my goods in such order and 
especially to see all my stock of necessaries so great. 



CHAPTER IV 

While exploring one day with my gun in the 

southern end of the island I came upon a variety 

of fruits such as I had seen none of in the part 

wherein I dwelt and particularly I found melons on 

the ground and grapes upon the trees; the vines 

had spread indeed over the trees and the clusters 

of grapes were just in their prime, very ripe and 

rich. This was a surprising discovery and I was 

glad of them, and later I found an excellent use for 

these grapes and that was to cure or dry them in 

the sun and keep them as dried grapes or raisins 

are kept, which I thought would be, as indeed they 

were, as wholesome and as agreeable to eat, when no 

grapes might be had. And I found here also an 

abundance of cocoa trees, oranges and lemons and 

citron trees, all wild and few bearing any fruit. 

However, the green limes were very wholesome and 

mixed with water made a drink which was most 

refreshing, and later I found trees with ripe lemons 

on them. 

I resolved to lay up a store but on trying to 
26 



A New Robinson Crusoe 27 

carry them the long distance to my cave or tent I 
found when I arrived there that the grapes had 
bruised and spoiled and of the limes I had but few. 
And when I returned the next day those I had piled 
up were spoiled and scattered by some animal, prob- 
ably the goats, which roamed these parts. So I 
gathered more of the grapes and this time hung 
them on the branches of the trees where they would 
cure in the sun and when I came again after a 
number of days found them perfectly dried and in- 
deed were excellent good raisins of the sun. So I 
took them down from the trees and I was very 
happy that I did so for the rains which followed 
would have spoiled them and I had lost the best 
part of my winter food; for I had above two hun- 
dred bunches of them. 

On the 26th of August of this year I found a 
large tortoise and later I found there were many 
on the opposite side of the island ; and I found their 
egfes as well as their flesh a great addition to my 
diet. The eggs like my meat I broiled as I had no 
dish in which to stew or to make a broth. 

When confined to my tent by the long and copious 
rains I found employment in attempting if it were 
possible to make myself a basket, and it proved of 
advantage to me now that when I was a boy I used 



28 A New Robinson Crusoe 

to take great delight in standing at a basket maker's 
in the town where my father lived to see them make 
their wickerware, and being as boys are very offi- 
cious to help and a great observer of the manner 
how they worked those things, I had by this means 
so full knowledge of the method of it that I wanted 
nothing but the materials, which on the island were 
easily found, certain of the young branches proving 
as tough as the sallows and willows and osiers of 
England. And with these I contrived with time and 
patience to make a great many baskets both to carry 
earth, or to carry or lay up anything as I had occa- 
sion, and though I did not finish them very hand- 
somely yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for 
my purpose and I had strong, deep baskets to place 
my corn in instead of sacks when I should come to 
have any quantity of it. 

Now as to this matter of corn I had seen from 
the start that there would in time be an end of the 
biscuits taken from the wreck and what to do for 
bread when they were gone gave me some concern. 
J am a poor botanist and I had hunted among the 
growing things of the island for some substitute 
for bread such as the natives are said to use, but 
with no success. And it was while deeply ponder- 
ing what to do that the answer came to me as by the 



A New Robinson Crusoe 29 

merest accident. For I have spoken of the little bag 
of spoiled rice and barley which the rats had 
gnawed. This, it appears, was the remnants I had 
shaken out on a spot near my landing place, not 
realizing that amid the chaff there were a few grains 
still surviving whole. But one day after the rains 
had come I came upon new and different blades of 
green shooting from the ground which I recognized 
as from my corn and at once I set about to harbor 
it by all means in my power. I made a hedge about 
the place to protect it from the goats which I had 
tamed and were now accustomed to browse about 
my dwelling, and later on I had a greater danger to 
overcome, for as the young grain ripened I found 
the birds gathered about in great numbers ready to 
save me any trouble in the harvesting thereof. So 
angered was I at seeing them that I let fly with my 
gun and brought down three, which I treated after 
the manner felons are served in England, for I hung 
them in chains as a warning to their fellows; and 
to my intense relief the birds were so alarmed that 
they flew off and abandoned all that side of the 
island and would not return while my scarecrows 
so remained. And the first season I got but a peck 
or so of rice and the same of barley, which I kept 
and sowed on a larger space which I hedged and 



30 A New Robinson Crusoe 

dug up with a wooden shovel which had to do for 
an iron spade. And the next crop was a total of 
perhaps five bushels, all of which I kept for seed 
and the seasons favored for it is possible in this lat- 
itude to get two crops the year by sowing in the 
early part of the rainy months and allowing the 
crop to ripen, as the dryness and the warmth in- 
crease. So with the increase of my store of grain 
I began to think of how I might prepare it when 
I should have enough to spare for food. And I 
was perplexed for I neither knew how to grind nor 
to make meal of my corn, nor indeed how to clean 
it and part it; nor, if made into meal how to make 
bread of it, and if how to make it, I knew not how 
to bake it. These things being added to my desire 
of having a good quantity for store, I resolved 
not to taste any of this crop but to preserve it all 
for seed against the next season and to employ all 
my study and hours of working to accomplish this 
great work of providing myself with corn and 
bread. 

It might be truly said that I now worked for my 
bread. It is a little wonderful, and what I believe 
few people have thought much upon, namely the 
Strange multitude of little things necessary in the 



r A New Robinson Crusoe 31 

providing, procuring, curing, dressing, making and 
furnishing this one article of bread. 

I who was reduced to a mere state of nature 
found this to be my daily discouragement, and was 
made more and more sensible of it every hour, eveni 
after I got the first handful of seed corn which, as 
I have said, came up unexpectedly and indeed to my 
surprise. 

First, I had no plow to turn the earth, no spade 
or shovel to dig it. But this I conquered by making 
a wooden spade; but this did my work but in a 
wooden manner, and made the work much harder. 

When the seed was sowed I had no harrow but 
was forced to go over it myself and drag a heavy 
bough of a tree over it, to scratch the earth as it may 
be called, rather than rake or harrow it. 

When it was growing or grown I have observed 
already how many things I wanted, to fence it, 
secure it, mow or reap it, cure or carry it home, 
thresh, part it from the chaff and save it. Then 
I wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast 
and salt to make it into bread and an oven to bake 
it in. And all these things I did without, as shall 
be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable 
advantage to me, too. 

It was quite by accident that I learned to make a 



32 A New Robinson Crusoe 

vessel that would stand the fire — the need of which 
I have spoken of. I had been fashioning crude ves- 
sels and pipkins in clay, in the hope of coming at 
something which when wrapped with basketry 
would hold my grain, when I found in the ashes of 
my fire a piece of the broken clay baked hard and 
red. This set me to experiment and after various 
trials in increasing and slackening the heat of a 
great fire which I built up around my mud-pie ves- 
sels, I found that they did not crack or run but came 
out after many hours as hard burnt as could be de- 
sired and one of them perfectly glazed with the run- 
ning of the sand, my joy was like that of some great 
artist who sees before him the creation of his gen- 
ius. Hardly did I have patience to stay till they 
were cold before I set one upon the fire again with 
some water in it to boil me some meat which it did 
admirably well, and with a piece of kid I made 
some very good broth, even though I lacked the oat- 
meal. 

As for a mill to grind my corn I did not aspire to 
that but sought out a great block of hard wood, as 
big as I had strength to move, and this I rounded 
and formed outside with my axe and hatchet and 
then with the help of fire and infinite labor made a 
hollow place in it, after which I made a great heavy 



r A New Robinson Crusoe 33 

pestle or beater of iron-wood. And this was my 
mill. And for a sieve I made several small ones 
out of some calico neck-cloths which were among 
the seamen's clothes. 

And for an oven I made earthen vessels, burnt 
in the fire two feet wide and nine inches deep and 
when I wanted to bake I made a great fire upon 
the hearth which I had paved with some square 
tiles of my own making and burning also, and when 
the firewood was burnt pretty much to embers or 
live coals I drew them forward upon this hearth 
so as to cover it all over and when the hearth was 
very hot, sweeping away the embers I set down my 
loaf and whelming down the earthen pot upon them 
drew the embers all around the outside to keep in 
and add to the heat ; and thus, as well as in the best 
oven in the world, I baked my barley loaves, and 
became in a little time a good pastry cook into the 
bargain. As for yeast or salt I did not concern 
myself with them and learned to do well without. 



CHAPTER V 

For companionship I had these days the dog which 
had leaped from the ship the first day I visited the 
wreck, the several goats which I had caught and 
tamed and which browsed about my tent-cave hab- 
itation, and a parrot which also I had knocked down 
and tamed and which in time learned to speak, 
namely, to call me by name and to say, "Crusoe, 
poor old Robinson Crusoe !" Nor should I omit 
the cats, for the ship's cat came to me one day a 
few months after I had landed and brought with 
her a train of kittens which in time again began 
to multiply to such numbers that they were a nui- 
sance and some had to be killed and others driven 
off. My dog, who lived to be very old, was always 
at my side. He never lacked in sympathy or ap- 
parent understanding of what I said to him and 
did all but answer me with words. I talked often to 
the dog, for in such solitude there is a comfort even 
in the sound of one's own voice. 

My days I arranged after a systematic manner. 
In the morning generally I went abroad with my 

34 



A New Robinson Crusoe 35 

gun to shoot a fowl, a duck or a pigeon ; or I ran- 
sacked the rocks where their nests were made to se- 
cure the young or their eggs. Or I might shoot 
a young goat or happen on a tortoise, or get fresh 
grapes, melons or cress, of which there was abun- 
dance in the stream. During the heated spell I 
rested in the shade of my tent during the middle 
of the day and went abroad again or to my work in 
the cooler part. In one of the seamen's chests I 
had found some books, three Bibles and some works 
on navigation. These I studied and the Bible I be- 
gan to read with a renewed interest. The bitterness 
and despair which had filled my soul when first I 
found myself alone and cast away forever cut off 
from the companionship of other human beings — ■ 
this bitterness I say had quite abated and I gave 
humble thanks that God had been pleased to dis- 
cover to me even that it was possible I might be 
more happy in this solitary condition than I should 
have been in a liberal society, and in all the pleas- 
ures of the world. 

So in time, in dividing the day for my employ- 
ments, I began with the reading of the Scriptures, 
and with this I permitted nothing to interfere. 
Then coming in from the three hours spent in hunt- 
ing, there were the labors attendant upon the order- 



36 A New Robinson Crusoe 

ing, curing, preserving and cooking what I had 
killed or caught for my supply. These took up 
a considerable part of the day, so there was none 
too much time remaining for the laborious tasks 
which had to be performed. 

About the fourth year of my sojourn on this 
island my clothes began to decay mightily, so that 
I began to consider about putting the few rags I 
had which I called clothes into some order. For I 
could not bear the thought of being naked, though 
I was all alone. And there was another and excel- 
lent reason for wishing to be covered, for I found 
by experience that I could not bear the heat so well 
naked as with some clothes on — nay, the very heat 
frequently blistered my skin, whereas with a shirt 
on, or some covering, even though thick, the air 
itself made some motion and whistling under the 
shirt, was twofold cooler than without it. No more 
could I ever bring myself to go out in the heat of 
the sun without a cap or hat, the heat of the sun 
beating with such violence as it does in that place 
would give me the headache presently by darting so 
directly on my head. 

So I fell to tailoring or rather indeed a-botching, 
for I made most piteous work of it. Lacking need- 
les and thread, I raveled my stockings, which I had 



f A New Robinson Crusoe 37 

worn, and for needle used a nail which I had sharp- 
ened. But soon I gave up trying to mend the rags 
and turned attention to the skins of various animals 
I had killed. For these I had preserved stretched 
out with sticks in the sun, and some were soft and 
useful. First I made a great cap for my head with 
the hair on the outside to shut off the rain and this 
I performed so well that I made a suit of clothes 
wholly of these skins — that is to say a waistcoat 
and breeches open at the knees, and both loose, for 
they were wanted rather to keep me cool than to 
keep me warm. I must not omit to acknowledge 
that they were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad 
carpenter I was a worse tailor; however, they were 
such as I made a very good shift with, and when I 
was abroad if it happened to rain, the hair of the 
waistcoat and cap being outmost, I was kept very 
dry. 

And after this I spent a great deal of my time 
and pains to make an umbrella. I was indeed in 
great want of one what with rain and sun. There 
were many spoiled before I had my way. It was 
covered with skins, hair upwards, so that it cast off 
the rain like a tenthouse and kept off the sun so ef- 
fectively that I could walk out in the hottest of the 
weather with greater advantage than I could before 



38 A New Robinson Crusoe 

in the coolest. And when I had no need of it I 
could close it and carry it under my arm. 

Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being 
entirely composed by resigning to the will of God 
and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of 
His providence. And when I began to regret the 
want of conversation, I found a substitute in ask- 
ing myself all manner of difficult and confusing 
questions and thereupon setting about answering 
them — formulating the answer clearly and in con- 
formity with truth and reason. And many prob- 
lems which before I had not had time to work out to 
any conclusion I was able thus to solve quite to 
my own satisfaction, of which I shall at the proper 
time have more to say. 

And my chief task in the fifth year of my resi- 
dence in these parts, outside the yearly planting and 
harvesting and the daily hunting, curing, preparing 
and cooking, was the building of a canoe, which I 
did after the manner of the natives who hew them 
out of great logs of some light wood, easily worked 
and hollowed out by tools and fire. This with much 
labor was finally completed and by building a canal 
up to the boat was set afloat. So I was ready to 
explore the seas in the direction of those lands or 



A New Robinson Crusoe 39 

islands which on clear days I had descried to the 
South, but knew not what they were or if inhabited 
by man or beasts or savages. But I was curious 
to know. 



CHAPTER VI 

I had now brought my state of life to be much 
easier in itself than it was at first, and much easier 
to my mind as well as to my body. I frequently 
sat down to my meat with thankfulness and admired 
the hand of God's providence, which had thus spread 
my table in the wilderness. 

One reflection was of great use to me, namely, 
to compare my present condition with what I at 
first expected it to be — nay, with what it certainly 
would have been — if the good providence of God 
had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up 
near to the shore where I not only could come at 
her, but could bring what I got out of her to the 
shore for my relief and comfort; without which I 
had wanted tools to work, weapons for defense or 
gunpowder and shot for getting food. 

I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in 

representing to myself in the most lively colors how 

I must have acted, if I had gotten nothing out of the 

ship ; how I could not have so much as got my food, 

except fish and turtles, and that as it was long be- 

40 



A New Robinson Crusoe 41 

fore I found any of them I must have perished 
first — that I should have lived if I had not perished, 
like a savage — that if I had killed a goat or a fowl 
by any contrivance, I had no way to flay or open 
them, or part the flesh from the skin and the bowels 
or cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth and 
pull it with my claws, like a beast. 

And I passed from these reflections to consider- 
ing what man owes to his fellow-man and how de- 
pendent, one upon the other, is every human being 
in the world. For the tools which I took from the 
ship, I now bethought me, did not come into being 
of themselves, but were themselves worked out by 
the labor of workmen like myself, only knowing 
more of the arts and crafts. The axe which I used 
to chop down a tree — to make it men must have dug 
iron from the earth, others must have smelted the 
metal from the dross, still others must have jarred it 
through the tempering process to give it a hardened 
edge, to say nothing of the fashioning it into shape 
and fitting it to a suitable helve. And now every- 
thing among my possessions from the ship began 
to take on a new interest and a dignity which before 
were unknown. An ordinary bit of sailcloth I found 
to be a quite wonderful contrivance of threaded 
hemp or cotton regularly interlaced in a way which 



42 A New Robinson Crusoe 

I could never hope to imitate. My powder — of 
what was it composed? Whence came the ingre- 
dients? Were they dug, distilled or concocted by 
some abstruse chemist's formula? How many per- 
sons had labored with their hands and brains to pro- 
duce the little store which I had harbored up for my 
future needs? And the gun I always carried — 
again the metal must be dug from the rock below 
the surface of the earth, it must be smelted and 
worked with tools which in turn were the creations 
of still others' work. The levers, bolts and screws 
which worked the lock and caused the flint to strike 
the steel — all the contriving and creating were to me 
reminders of my debt to other men. I had become 
an artisan, and I hailed my fellow artisans and su- 
periors in the world of artisanry and made them my 
obeisance. Before I had thought of a knife or a 
gun as articles one bought, getting money for the 
purpose as one might; now I thought of them in 
terms of labor, skill and creative thought — all per- 
formed for me, and the which, by all rights, I 
should return in kind. 

Thus I came upon the answer to that question 
which, at first, had puzzled me: Why does man 
work? For I perceived that man works to acquire 
the things he must have if he is to go on living — 



A New Robinson Crusoe 43 

food, clothing to protect him from the weather and 
shelter for his increased protection. 

I perceived, moreover, that strictly speaking, man 
produceth nothing; but God has ordained that the 
earth shall bear trees and other growing things; 
and that the verdure and the fruits shall afford sup- 
port to animals, wild or tame, and to birds of the 
air, and that all these things are for man for his 
food. But I perceived that none of these things 
are acquired by man except by labor, for the tree 
must be hewn and cut into boards, firewood or other 
shapes ; the fruit must be gathered and ofttimes pre- 
served; grain must be sowed, reaped, ground and 
made into loaves before it is fit for human food and 
animals must be captured or killed if wild, or tend- 
ed and bred if domesticated and, being killed, the 
flesh must be saved and prepared with intricate care 
before it becomes man's nourishment. And for the 
doing of all these things there must be tools, and 
for the making of the tools there must be labor at 
mining, welding, moulding, grinding, tempering and 
a hundred varied operations of which the average 
person like myself knows nothing. And as tools 
wear out or are broken there must be others to 
take their place, so that there are always those en- 
gaged in making tools. And as clothes wear out 



44 A New Robinson Crusoe 

and are thus consumed there are always those who 
are working to make clothes ; and as houses become 
outworn, out of repair and antiquated, or become 
too narrow for growing families, there must be new 
houses built; so there are those working always at 
erecting houses, whether of wood, stone or brick, 
all of which materials must be ravished from the 
forest, the quarry or the clay-pit. And I began to 
see that the workers of the world were specialized. 
For no one man can adequately do the many things 
needful for the simplest mode of life. In my case 
this was clearly manifest, for with all my industry 
I was compelled to dress in skins, and despite my 
utmost efforts I could not make a needle. If the 
lightning had struck my small supply I would have 
been sadly in need of a powder specialist, or if 
the spring had snapped in the breech-lock of my 
fowling piece, no thought or industry of mine would 
have supplied the place of that specialist called a 
gunsmith. 

How helpless, I concluded, is man alone! Fa- 
vored as I was by a mild and equable climate, 
blessed in the absence of ravening beasts such as 
tigers, bears or wolves; finding a veritable garden 
of edible wild fruits, and a gracious soil and abun- 
dant rain for the raising of agricultural products, 






A New Robinson Crusoe 45 

not forgetting the goats, turtles, fish and fresh flow- 
ing streams — I say that even amid an environment 
like this, and leaning heavily on the tools which I 
had from the labor of other men, I was still shel- 
tered in a manner which civilization would regard 
as almost savage, while my raiment would have 
brought a crowd at my heels if I were back among 
my fellow-creatures. Nor did I consider myself 
remiss; for to have it otherwise I must have been 
able to spin and weave, to mine and smelt ; to make 
needles and gun-springs and powder ; to quarry and 
perform the work of masons, to shape great beams 
and transport all over long spaces, all of which I 
perceived is impossible for man laboring by himself. 
By collective labor are great things done, and by 
those who have specialized are the intricate things 
wrought out. 

And in the adventures which happened to me 
later I saw these things in even a clearer light. 



CHAPTER VII 

I have spoken of my efforts to make a boat by 
digging out a log and shaping it in a way to float 
well in the water. My first attempt had failed, for 
that I had chosen a log so great that when I had 
shaped and hollowed it I was unable to get it to the 
water by reason of the distance and the weight. 
My second attempt was made with better fore- 
thought and while I found it necessary to dig a ca- 
nal upward half a mile from the sea to my craft, 
yet I diligently pursued the task for two years and 
in the end had the satisfaction of viewing my handi- 
work floating in my little inlet and ready to be out- 
fitted. I was very anxious to explore about the 
shores of my island and hoped with it to venture 
to the mainland if indeed there should prove to be 
a mainland at not too great a distance. In any 
case it would, I thought, be the first step in my de- 
liverance. So I fitted up a little mast to my boat 
and made a sail to it out of one of the pieces of 
the ship's sails, which lay in store and of which I 

had a great store by me. Thus fitted I tried the 

46 



A New Robinson Crusoe /\rj 

boat and found she would sail very well. Then I 
made little lockers and boxes at each end to put pro- 
visions, necessaries and ammunition in, to be kept 
dry, either from rain or the spray of the sea, and a 
little long hollow space I cut in the inside where 
I could lay the gun, making a flap to hang down 
over it to keep it dry. I fixed my umbrella in a 
step at the stern, like a mast to stand over my head 
and to keep the beating of the sun off' me, tike an 
awning, and thus I every now and then took a 
little voyage upon the sea, but never went far out, 
nor far from the little creek; but at last, being 
eager to view the circumference of my little king- 
dom, I resolved upon a tour, and accordingly I 
victualed my ship for the voyage, putting in two 
dozen of my loaves of barley bread, an earthen 
pot full of parched rice (a food I ate a great deal 
of), a good supply of fresh water, half a goat and 
powder and shot for killing more, and two large 
watch coats which I had saved from the seamen's 
chests; these I took, one to lie on and the other to 
put over me at night. 

It was the sixth of November in the sixth year of 
my reign, or my captivity, which you please, that I 
set out upon this voyage, and I found it longer than 
I expected, for while the island was not very large 



48 A New Robinson Crusoe 

I found adverse winds the second day and was 
obliged to make camp and wait for smoother seas. 
On the following day, having resumed my voyage, 
I came upon a great ledge of rocks running about 
two leagues out to sea ; some above water and some 
below it, and beyond this a shoal of sand lying 
dry half a league or more, so I was obliged to go a 
great way out to sea to double that point. 

My course from there should stand as a warning 
to all rash and ignorant pilots, for no sooner was 
I a quarter of a league from the shore than I found 
myself in a great depth of water and a current like 
the sluice of a mill. It carried my boat along with 
such violence that all my efforts could not keep her 
so much as on the current's edge; but I found it 
hurried me farther and farther out to sea. There 
was no wind stirring to help me and all I could do 
with my paddles signified nothing. So now I be- 
gan to give myself over for lost. Every moment 
was carrying me farther from the island, I knew 
not whither. My craft would not live in anything 
but most favorable weather and if I had the good 
fortune to have smooth seas my provisions would 
last but a brief space and then I must perish of 
hunger and thirst. Now I looked back on my deso- 
late, solitary island as the most pleasant place in the 



~A New Robinson Crusoe 49 

world, and all the happiness my heart could wish for 
was to be there again. 

I worked hard till indeed my strength was almost 
exhausted, and I kept my boat as much as possible 
to the northward, where I hoped not only to get out 
of the force of the current but to get into the back 
fib 1 or eddy which such a current must somewhere 
always have. By noon I thought I felt a little 
breeze in my face springing from the southeast. 
This cheered my heart a little and especially when 
an hour later it blew a pretty small gentle gale. By 
this time I had gotten a frightful distance from the 
island, and had the least cloud or haze intervened 
I had been undone, for I had no compass on board 
and should never have known which way to steer 
for the island. But the weather remaining clear, 
I applied myself to getting up my mast again and 
spread my sail, standing away to the north as much 
as possible. And I had no sooner done so than I 
saw by the clearness of the water that some altera- 
tion of the current was near; for where the current 
was so strong the water was foul; but perceiving 
the water clear, I found the current abate and pres- 
ently I found to the east, at about half a mile, a 
breach of the sea upon some rocks. These I found 
made a breach of the current's stream and while 



50 A New Robinson Crusoe 

the main stress of it continued to run southerly the 
other returned and made a strong eddy which ran 
back again to the northwest with a very sharp 
stream. 

I was now as one who, having been condemned, 
had a reprieve. With unspeakable joy I put my 
boat into the stream of this eddy and the wind IfiJso 
freshening I spread my sail to it, running cheerfully 
before the wind and with a strong tide or eddy un- 
der foot. After about a league the eddy failed and 
I was left to my sail alone, but the water now was 
neutral and I kept on steering for the island and by 
five o'clock in the afternoon I came to shore. At 
once I fell on my knees and gave God thanks for my 
deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thought of 
my deliverance by my boat; and refreshing myself 
with such things as I had, I brought my boat close 
to the shore in a little cove I had espied under 
some trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite 
spent with the labor and fatigue of the voyage. 

And presently I was aroused by something hav- 
ing touched me and awoke to see before me a man — 
the first I had beheld in more than six years. 

At first I was convinced that this was a dream 
and that I was still asleep or in a fever. My first 
impression was one of fear alone, for the unexpect- 



A New Robinson Crusoe 51 

edness of the apparition and the long habit of my 
life alone had made the appearance of an ordinary 
human being startling to the last extreme. I strug- 
gled to my feet and would have fled, but the stran- 
ger smiled and, laying hold of me urged me to be 
calm. Such at least I judged to be the purport of 
his words which, as I afterward learned, were spok- 
en in Portuguese; but his gestures were reassuring 
and from his clothing and general appearance I 
placed him as a man of the sea, like myself. Pres- 
ently I perceived that there were others and that 
they had come in a small-sized sailing boat, which 
now lay at anchor near the shore, and when I had 
recovered from the fright and shock of this strange 
awakening, you may imagine my eagerness and 
joy at seeing again creatures of my kind and once 
more hearing the human voice. Great was my joy 
when a group had gathered quickly about me one 
of them addressed me in English, with a touch of 
the Yorkshire dialect. At the sound of my native 
tongue my joy was too great for utterance and I 
fell upon the Yorkshireman and embraced him, to 
his great amazement; for they were all regarding 
me and my strange attire with a curiosity and sur- 
prise they made no effort to conceal. 

And in reply to my earnest questionings the York- 



52 A New Robinson Crusoe 

shireman informed me that they had come from 
an island not unlike mine which was one of two 
which lay to the west and south of me some eight 
leagues and that this was the first time they had 
ever landed on my island, which indeed to them 
was a new discovery, for they were members of a 
colony of political refugees who had taken part in 
an uprising in Chili and had by the government 
been exiled and set down on these islands, without 
boats of sufficient size to make the voyage back to 
the mainland and with orders never more to return 
on pain of death. And the colony they told me now 
numbered some fifty people and they had their 
women among them and they had learned to live a 
fairly comfortable life on the two islands — the 
which were not far distant the one from the other — 
and they had finally built this small sailing vessel 
and gone exploring what might be farther to the 
west. Thus they had come upon my domain and 
me. 



CHAPTER VIII 

There were eight in the party which had come in 
the little sailing boat to my island and I perceived 
that they carried no firearms, though of knives in 
their belts they had a-plenty, and I later learned that 
their captors had purposely left them neither pow- 
der nor firearms when they were deposited on their 
island; and these they had not as yet been able to 
produce on their own account, though afterward 
the formula for making powder, together with the 
necessary nitrolis and free carbon, were discovered. 
Meantime I figured that with my gun and store of 
ammunition I had an advantage over them, even 
though I might be but one to their score. But these 
thoughts did my visitors great injustice, for never 
at any time did any but friendly thoughts enter 
their minds and in the end I was ashamed even to 
myself that I had momentarily dwelt upon my supe- 
rior equipment to do them harm. For I found them 
most friendly in their disposition and very eager to 
relieve me in what they naturally inferred was a 

condition of great distress. Several of the boatmen 

53 



54 "A New Robinson Crusoe 

could speak little English and the Yorkshireman 
became at once interpreter for the others, who spoke 
both Portuguese and Spanish. It seems a British 
ship had gone ashore on the islands and the York- 
shireman was one of three who had been saved and 
he had now been five years with the Chilean refu- 
gees. 

I bade the visitors welcome to my island and 
made myself a guide to show its various features. 
I brought them to my cave and showed them, not 
without pride, all the things I had contrived, not 
forgetting to kill a kid and set before them, and 
from my store of sun-cured grapes, turtle eggs and 
barley loaves. In the latter and in the raisins they 
were greatly interested, for there were no grapes 
on their islands, nor for some unknown reason, cit- 
rons. But the lack of barley was due to the fact 
that they had been given none for seed by their 
jailors who, on the contrary, left them only a small 
quantity of maize, and this they had cultivated for 
their bread, not without difficulty, however, owing 
to the character of the islands, for these two other 
islands were quite different from the one on which 
I dwelt. When I visited them — as I did shortly as 
their guest — I concluded that the geologic history 
of the islands was quite diverse; for while mine 



A New Robinson Crusoe 55 

was obviously of volcanic origin, theirs was an older 
sort of rock, carrying many of the features of the 
continental rocks, with mineral beds of iron, coal 
and a trace of the more precious metals. But their 
islands were less arable. The rocks were bold and 
hard and the level spaces narrow and difficult of 
access. But withal I found their settlement quite 
a picture of contentment. They had built some 
thirty houses and there were several others scat- 
tered at different points about the islands. Every 
house had a garden belonging to it in which many 
fruits and vegetables grew luxuriantly. The main 
island, which they call Mas-a-fuera, is much broken 
with ravines and gulches, but there is in the midst 
one main valley sheltered and inviting, where there 
grew many fruit trees, flowers and sweet herbs. 
In the midst of the houses there was built a little 
church, with an inscription, "La casa de Dias es la 
jnerta del cielo y Se coloco!' 

The dress of the women I found to be of a singu- 
lar description, and was, they told me, the same 
as that of the ladies of Chili and Peru. They wore 
a petticoat reaching only a little below the knee, 
spread out to a great distance by a hoop at the lower 
part, leaving their legs entirely exposed, which, 
however, were covered with drawers. They wore 



56 A New Robinson Crusoe 

their hair long, hanging down the back and plaited 
into forty and sometimes fifty braids. In every 
house I entered I beheld great numbers of children, 
and indeed other evidences of prosperity. 

My visitors remained with me as my guests for 
two days, and at the end of that time I sent them 
away laden down with dried grapes, goat flesh, 
barley loaves and flour. And they were very anx- 
ious that I return with them at once to their 
islands; but I made excuses to them promising to 
visit them on their return voyage, as indeed I did 
with observations which I have already set down. 

And here I find it necessary to record a strange 
thing — namely, my entire change of feeling toward 
the island which had in the beginning been to me 
a prison and my way of life which had been to my 
thought a hardship. Now the island was my home, 
and my way of life upon it had revealed to me 
that even solitude hath its pleasures. I had found, 
that there is no such thing as perfect freedom, for 
man is what God intended him the servant of laws 
which environment impose on him, requiring reg- 
ularity of toil, physical and mental, for such laws 
require of him foresight and thrift like that of the 
bee to lay up stores against the season when they 
ghall not be at hand, and diligence in devising ways 



A New Robinson Crusoe 57 

to protect his life against the elements and those 
things which are enemies to his life not forgetting 
sloth and dullness which is a close relative as well 
as a precursor of death and dissolution. But also 
I had found that man alone is more nearly free than 
when man is compassed about by other human be- 
ings, for in his every day contact with his fellow 
creatures man must yield something of his indi- 
vidual whims and bend to those common notions 
which in time come to be the conventions of society, 
and later on its laws. So when I analyzed myself 
I found myself averse to taking up a permanent 
residence in the colony whence my visitors had 
come, but I preferred to remain on my own domain 
interchanging friendship with them and such com- 
modities and service as would tend to make the 
conditions of life more desirable for all. 

And so it was. And from this period I entered 
on a new experience the relating of which will prove 
no less interesting, I trust, than the experiences 
which had led up to this new and strange adventure. 



CHAPTER IX 

With the coming of these other human beings and 
the setting up of contact with two more islands 
my fiscal world was broadened. By fiscal world I 
refer to the realm of those activities which have to 
do with the satisfaction of man's needs and wants. 
For I conceive that there is such a realm just as 
there is an intellectual realm, or a physical. As in 
the physical man exercises the faculties of his body, 
and in the intellectual realm the faculties of his 
mind, so in the fiscal realm he exercises the fiscal 
faculties with which he chances to be endowed, pro- 
ducing, owning, trading with his fellows and de- 
veloping fiscal strength or weakness as the event 
may determine. 

To this conclusion I had come after much thought 
during the many hours I had devoted to thinking 
out the problems which my solitary life had imposed 
on me. Of my solitary fiscal life — that in which 
I was unaided by my fellow men (except what I 
had gathered from the wreck) I have spoken. With 

the coming of other human beings and the enlarging 

58 



A New Robinson Crusoe 59 

of these relations there came new problems. Of 
them and of the answers I resolved I shall speak 
as my narrative proceeds. 

On their return to my island which was as soon 
as the weather and the state of the sea would per- 
mit, for they durst not adventure much in so small 
a boat — my neighbor colonists brought with them 
a suit of clothes for me made of home-spun wool 
woven by hand on looms which certain of their 
women operated with skill, together with stockings 
knit likewise by the women — all of wool, sheared 
from sheep which they had raised and spun on 
distaffs operated in their homes. Likewise there 
was linen underwear, the need of which I had 
greatly felt after the shirts from the ship had worn 
out. This, too, was made of flax raised and shred- 
ded on their island; for they had for a long time 
been cut off from any communication with the 
mainland and had only that which their skill and 
industry had enabled them to create. 

And my first thought was one of shame that I 
had not been able to make cloth, spinning it from 
the hair of my goats. But in this I blamed myself 
without cause, for on inquiry I learned that several 
in the colony had been weaver artisans and knew 
the trade of weaving before ever they were set 



60 A New Robinson Crusoe 

down in this remote spot. So that when the neces- 
sity was upon them, they had an experience to 
draw upon and knew how to build a loom ; and the 
women had known how to spin and to knit, and 
did not have to invent the art as I should have 
had to do. They, in short, were specialists, and 
were useful in contributing of their specialty to 
the community's needs, while others furnished them 
with the products of the soil or the trophies of the 
chase. 

Gladly, therefore, did I accept cloth from the 
weavers, in exchange for the flour and raisins I 
had sent them, and I perceived that both had prof- 
ited by the exchange for they were equally glad 
to have my offerings. 

This, then, I concluded, is the function of ex- 
change that man may have a greater variety of 
useful articles; for different localities of the earth 
produce different things ; different men have diverse 
skill and special knowledge, and when each follows 
his specialty or adapts himself to the opportunities 
held forth by nature, the total product is made more 
diverse and of greater volume, and when exchange 
has distributed to each his fair share there results 
a larger measure of happiness and comfort than 
there would have been had each attempted as I 



A New Robinson Crusoe 61 

had previously, and of necessity, tried to do, that 
is to do all things for himself. 

This time I sent my visitors home laden with 
quantities of ripe lemons, grapes, and some goat 
meat, and they in turn promised to bring with 
them on their next trip tools and a couple of their 
best carpenters with enough helpers to build a cot- 
tage with sides of dressed boards, a thatched roof 
and windows and a door fitted to open or shut. 
And this they did. And as I watched their labor 
I reasoned thus: 

I, working by myself, was not able to build a 
house. The beams were too heavy for my single 
strength. Two men cooperating can lift a weight 
impossible to one and six men with poles and levers 
can accomplish wonders. It is because the men 
cooperate — because a number are working together 
toward a common end — that important things are 
done. 

And further I observed that one man appeared 
to know more about the way the structure should 
be built than the others, and this one led. The 
others did as he directed, and they called him mas- 
ter builder. But it was his superiority in knowing 
how that made the others follow and him to give 
the orders. There are those who know and those 



62 A New Robinson Crusoe 

who cooperate and are willing to take orders, and 
this results in bringing the labor of many hands 
and the thought of many minds to the accomplish- 
ment of a common purpose. 

Thus I had discovered in my fiscal world special- 
ization, cooperation, and organization — three im- 
portant methods employed by man to do man's 
work, to do it better and in greater volume, where- 
as by exchange the blessings are distributed most 
widely. 

My friends brought tools and sawed the logs into 
boards, and thus two men in a saw-pit in a few 
hours did the work and did it better than I had 
taken days to do with my axe. And in a week 
they worked out rafters and joists which would 
have taken me a lifetime to hew. Indeed in ten 
days they had builded me a house which would 
have done credit to any village, the roof being 
thatched with reed-grass — a simple thing I had not 
had the wit to think about — and the windows hav- 
ing shutters which in wind or storm could be closed, 
and at one end a chimney with a walled-in space 
at the side where hot cinders could be placed to 
heat the space for baking. 

And I paid them for their labor on my house 
with one of my spare muskets and five pounds of 



A New Robinson Crusoe 63 

powder with balls to match. And this more than 
satisfied them, so that they were eager to be of 
further service to me. 

Now I perceived that in one respect I was at a 
disadvantage as compared with my neighbors in the 
other islands, namely, they had cattle and likewise 
barnyard fowl while I had only goats and the wild 
fowl which I must bring down with my gun. So 
on the next occasion I proposed that they exchange 
with me a bullock and a heifer with two hens and 
a cockerel for another musket and an equal quantity 
of ammunition as I had given for my house. To 
this they readily assented — a trade which to me 
was excellent since it gave me in time a herd of 
cattle for the upland pastures which on my island 
were rich and spacious with abundant milk for 
butter and cheese and beeves for food. And my 
dooryard soon swarmed with fowl, which kept 
me in good supply of eggs while there was always 
a bird ready for the stew pot or the skewer. 

But to the other parties the exchange was not 
so profitable, for the powder was soon expended 
and until more could be secured the musket was 
purely ornamental. 

Such, however, is the nature of exchange. Judg- 
ment as well as chance oft enters in, and the for- 



64 A New Robinson Crusoe 

tunes of the trader rise or fall as he is favored 
in the exercise of the one or the fortunate bestowal 
of the other. 

I soon felt that I was destined to become a person 
of wealth; and how this worked out will subse- 
quently appear. 



CHAPTER X 

Perceiving the great desire of my neighbors to 
have more of my rice and barley, I was not slow 
to plant more land in these crops. 

Here, said I, is the working of that fiscal law 
about which I have heard, the law of supply and 
demand. Demand is made up of people's wants; 
supply is made up of the ability and willingness to 
satisfy those wants. These colonists want rice and 
barley; I have these commodities in larger measure 
than I need; I am in a position therefore to secure 
for myself things which I desire by supplying their 
demands for rice and barley. I shall secure new 
and better tools, help in breaking the soil for my 
crop, with further wool and linen. 

In all these respects my anticipations were ful- 
filled. But one day I received a lesson in the con- 
trary working of this self-same principle ; for I had 
loaded my canoe for a trading voyage with the 
other islands and had carried to the second island 
some of the many hatchets which I have spoken of 

as among the things rescued from the ship — these 

65 



66 A New Robinson Crusoe 

and a quantity of turtle eggs which I that day gath- 
ered. Imagine then my shame and disappointment 
when I found that the colonists on the second island 
had opened a small iron mine in the mountains, and 
set up a smelter and were themselves makers of 
axes and hatchets and other tools much finer than 
those I brought ; so that they laughed at these, while, 
as for the turtle eggs, these abounded also on their 
island to such a degree that the children were wont 
to collect them for the barnyard fowls, but few 
were eaten by the people. 

Thus there was no demand for my cargo which 
I was obliged to take back with me. True there 
was a poor beggar among them who by physical 
defects was unable to work who wanted a hatchet 
and even the turtle eggs, but as he had nothing to 
give in exchange his wants did not constitute a de- 
mand in the sense which the world of business 
knows that term; for demand is made up of both 
a want and an ability to grant something of value 
in exchange. 

So by my failure to suit supply to demand I had 
lost my labor and my time ; but the loss had profited 
me in the way of knowledge, for I now perceived 
that when men live as neighbors and trade with 
one another it behooves them to study to make 



A New Robinson Crusoe 67 

their service fit the needs and wants of their fellows 
— in other words to suit supply to demand. 

Moreover, if one man does not do this it is apt 
to happen that another will; for the second man 
will see the opportunity that the first has over- 
looked. And likewise in the world of trade neither 
party to the exchange is able to be overbearing in 
his demands on the other, because a second or a 
third will come along and by more reasonable offer 
will take the exchange from the first man. 

This I perceived when I went to the iron work- 
ers' island to exchange barley-flour for a hammer. 
I came upon three smiths all with hammers just 
alike. The first demanded for his hammer a bushel 
of barley-flour, the second offered his hammer for 
half a bushel and the third said he would yield his 
for a peck. From him I secured the hammer. 

And I perceived here the working of the law of 
competition. For the three competed one with an- 
other and when the first was moved by greed to 
demand an unfair amount for his hammer (for he 
could make it in a day and it would take me a week 
to even grind so much flour) the others interposed, 
and one took the trade on a reasonable basis, show- 
ing how competition is a check on greed. 

I saw the working of this principle on their side 



68 A New Robinson Crusoe 

of the exchange ; but, alas, for the blindness of man 
to his own shortcomings, I had presently to see a 
different out-working of the same principle; for I 
perceived one workman to have a saw which was 
of most excellent workmanship and which I at once 
coveted. But perceiving their lack of barley meal 
I insisted that he let me have the saw for half a 
peck of flour. I was about to get the saw when 
the man who had sold me the hammer stepped up 
and offered a whole peck for the saw; which the 
owner at once accepted and I was left disappointed 
and humiliated. For at once I realized that in this 
case it was my greed which competition had checked ; 
for I had not offered a fair value for the saw. 

And I thought much about the working of com- 
petition, and I concluded that in general competition 
tends to equalize the values of articles exchanged — 
such values being measured in terms of the labor 
necessary to produce the article and bring it to the 
place where the exchange takes place. 

But I perceived that there are times when there 
can be no competition to be a check on greed, as 
when I possessed the only musket to be had and 
traded it for a fine new house. And at the begin- 
ning of my intercourse with the colonists I pos- 
sessed the only source of powder and therefore 



r A New Robinson Crusoe 69 

# 

might come very near to naming my own terms 
for an exchange for this for their commodities. 
But I could not quite do this for my powder was 
a commodity they could live without. And I could 
not refrain from some idle speculations as to how 
great would have been my fiscal strength if this, 
had been a commoditiy they must have to live, and 
I with the only supply in the world. Then indeed 
would I have been their king and they all my sub- 
jects with their lives a forfeit except as I let them 
live. 

Even as things were the competition among them 
as buyers of my barley meal soon placed me in a 
position of great fiscal strength. For their maize 
was not nourishing and was productive of a com- 
mon skin disease which in some cases proved fatal, 
so that they were all exceedingly anxious to get 
some of my barley meal, so that I soon had them 
bringing me stores of all the things they produced 
and offering labor of any form in exchange for 
small quantities of my flour. 



CHAPTER XI 

Thus I learned that competition is an influence 
which generally works on the two sides of an ex- 
change; and that the effect of competition, so at 
work, is to prevent the demand of an unreasonable 
amount of return for what is given — to make, in- 
deed, the exchange more fair. 

But what takes place where there is an absence 
of competition on one side of an exchange is seen 
in the undue amounts I was enabled to demand 
because I alone possessed the rice and barley which 
my neighbors needed. For had there been others 
near at hand having rice or barley, or who could 
be reached even at a distance, the colonists would 
have gone to them rather than render me a bolt of 
cloth for a peck of flour, and other articles in pro- 
portion. But there was none to compete with me 
in the sale of these two needed foods, my fiscal 
strength was overweening. 

And what takes place when there is present on 

the other side of the exchange an excess amount 

of competition I presently beheld also, for one day 

70 



A New Robinson Crusoe 71 

there came two men to buy rice. Neither had any 
commodity to offer in exchange but both offered 
to work for me at any employment I might put 
them at in payment for a small quantity of grain. 
And I bethought me of the weeds which were in 
my rice field, which I had intended to pull out, and 
I proposed to the first man that he work at weed- 
ing for a day for a quart of rice. To this he readily 
agreed, but when I informed the second man that 
I did not need his labor, having weeds for but one 
pair of hands, he showed much concern, and there- 
upon informed me that he had eaten nothing since 
the previous noonday meal and therefore would do 
the same amount of weeding for half a quart of 
rice. 

To this I readily assented, though I perceived 
that a hungry man competes unduly against one 
who is, not so moved. 

And on the next day came a woman and offered 
to do the weeding for less than the man, and after 
her a neighbor with five children all of whom she 
offered to weed all day for a quart of rice which at 
once did away with the possibility that any men 
might be employed in this labor. 

Here, said I, is an instance of undue competition 
weakening one side of the exchange. My bar- 



72 A New Robinson Crusoe 

gain with the first man was none too beneficial to 
him; but he could not compete with the hungry- 
man, nor the latter with the woman, nor the latter 
with the children. What they might have secured 
from me was reduced by their under bidding one 
against the other; whereas what I was enabled to 
extort from them was increased. In the absence of 
competition on my side of the exchange, I was 
blessed with an ever increasing fiscal strength, while 
on their side the growing eagerness of competi- 
tors reduced their fiscal strength to a point where 
they would gladly toil all their time for enough 
food to enable them to go on toiling. 

These people, I reasoned, are weak in a fiscal 
sense (for they were mostly all of sturdy bodies) 
because they have not a store of the necessities 
laid by. It is because of their immediate needs 
that I am able to take an unfair quantity in ex- 
change. It is because they are unable to do with- 
out the thing I have that they lack fiscal strength. 

And I concluded that one element in fiscal 
strength is the ability to do without what is offered 
in exchange. 

I was able to do without practically all the things 
possessed by my neighbors. I had managed to live 
quite comfortably before they came, doing all things 



A New Robinson Crusoe 73 

for myself, and I could do so again. Hence I was 
not compelled to trade with them at all but might 
keep all my grain for myself. 

Thus I arrived at the conclusion that the fiscal 
strength of one side or the other of a possible 
exchange increases as competition decreases and 
decreases as competition increases; also that it in- 
creases in proportion to man's ability to do without 
what is offered in exchange, and decreases in pro- 
portion to his inability to do without what is so 
offered. 

Moreover, I observed that in an exchange be- 
tween the person of fiscal strength and the person 
of fiscal weakness there is no element of fairness 
entering in, but the strong ever hath the better of 
the bargain. 

And in thus considering the matter of fiscal 
strength I found I had come upon the answer to 
a matter which had always puzzled me ; that is to 
say, why it is that all the hard work of the world 
is done for the least rewards; for those who dig 
and delve are not those who live in great houses 
and are served dainty food by retinues of servitors, 
but on the contrary this is the reward of those whose 
services are lightest while those who do those things 
most necessary to the continued ongoing of the 



74 A New Robinson Crusoe 

world — who mine our coal, dig our iron and till 
the soil, as well as those who build houses and carry 
merchandise and prepare our food and clothes for 
us — these dwell most humbly and often have but 
little of that which they produce. 

And it now occurred to me that these do the 
work more because they must than because they 
will. There are present among them the elements 
of fiscal weakness. They compete right eagerly 
among themselves and they are unable to do with- 
out the things offered in exchange, namely, food, 
shelter, warmth and a place to be. They have no 
store of these laid up, nor a store of money with 
which to buy them even for a short period, while 
holding out for better terms in the exchange; but 
on the contrary they must hearken to their im- 
mediate needs, and must exchange their labor or 
the product of their labor on any terms the person 
of superior fiscal strength shall say. So they are 
forever losing a part of the fair share which should 
be theirs by the exchange; whereas the few gather 
to themselves an ever increasing store with an ever 
increasing power to lord it over the weaklings of 
the world. 

Up to this time I had thought always of exchange 
as fair and had heard always that all bargains, 



A New Robinson Crusoe 75 

whether for barter or wages, were purely and fairly 
made. But now I saw that exchanges are fair only 
when made by persons of fairly equal strength, 
which seldom is the case; for most exchanges are 
between persons of greatly differing degrees of 
fiscal strength. 

But this is a discovery which one would not 
herald generally to the world, for all the laws and 
customs even in our most civilized parts are based 
on a contrary theory, namely, that exchanges are 
all free and fair and that each party to the ex- 
change is free to accept or decline the terms — 
which, as we have seen, is opposed to the facts. 

Such a theory is highly beneficial to the few who 
have fiscal strength, and it is not to their advantage 
to have the laws overthrown, as they would be if 
the many who do not benefit by this theory were to 
come to understand why they are opposed. 

But with matters of this sort I had no concern 
except as it gave me satisfaction to learn the an- 
swer to a puzzling question ; for I was profiting by 
the opportunity which had come my way and be- 
lieved I saw how I should in time place myself in 
a position of great ease. 



CHAPTER XII 

Many changes were wrought during the first year 

following the coming of my neighbors. I find set 

down in my diary this entry: 

I have to-day broken three acres of land for my 

crops. This is an enormous increase over what 

has been my custom to break for my own uses, but 

I perceive that I shall need much grain for trading 

with the other islanders; for their need is great. 

I sell my barley only as flour, for I perceive that 

the less they have for seed to grow crops on their 

island the better will be my market. For if I sell 

them seed grain and they cultivate this crop on their 

lands — which at any rate are inferior to the lands 

in this island — my own grain soon will begin to 

compete in the market and my fiscal strength 

will be made less. So I have said to those asking 

for seed grain that I could spare a little flour, but 

must husband my small store of seed, which is in 

a measure true. The two acres will be for barley 

and the one for rice, which I perceive they will 

76 



A New Robinson Crusoe 77 

raise in considerable amounts on their lands, and 
nothing I can do will prevent. 

The breaking of land was an easy task for I 
now had the help of two strong men and a bullock 
dragging a plow with an iron share. And it was 
a joy to me to see it cut through the sods which 
had so stubbornly resisted my poor wooden spade. 
And I marveled also at the great advance man 
achieves when he puts a harness on one of these 
dumb beasts and by applying his intelligence to 
guide their strength of neck and limb is able to 
have the most of his labor performed for him. 

Behold, said I, is not this the beginning of the 
conquest of nature by nature's own forces? For 
the ox and the ass and the horse aid man also in 
carrying from place to place; and the water of a 
falling stream may be used to turn one's mill stones 
as may even the winds of the heavens; and in the 
face of such marvels of human ingenuity who 
knows what other forces may not some day be 
made man's servants? 

And I secured the labor of the two men to break 
and harrow and sow my land for a small amount 
of flour with a little rice and two goats from my 
flock. And I had only to direct their labor. 

Seeing that I might have others work for me at 



yS A New Robinson Crusoe 

so little cost I procured from the other settlement 
two good carpenters and a third who knew some- 
thing of the shipwright's trade and in two months 
they built for me a sturdy sailing schooner of con- 
siderable depth and width, and about fifty feet over 
all, which was well suited to cruise between our is- 
lands carrying freight and passengers. And in the 
weavers' colony I discovered an old seafaring man, 
who had proved to be a poor hand at weaving and 
of little use at any land occupations; and him I 
induced to become master of my schooner at a wage 
to be made up of enough goat's meat, barley loaves 
and vegetables to keep him well fed and two suits 
of clothes a year. This with a little tobacco for his 
pipe was all he needed and he was more than con- 
tent to serve me thus and I pleased to have him, for 
I perceived that what I should take in exchange 
for the carrying of cargoes and passengers would 
be more than this by far, and the possession of the 
boat would be an added source of profit. 

And I perceived that when one permits the sur- 
plus of one's possessions to serve others he is com- 
pensated for this service, just as he would be if he 
placed his services at the disposal of his fellows. 
And at the end of the year my ship had earned 
for me a considerable store of merchandise over 



A New Robinson Crusoe 79 

and above what I had acquired by exchanging grain, 
rice, lemons, grapes and goats' flesh with the in- 
habitants of the other islands. So that my house 
and barns were filled with merchandise. 

I made frequent voyages in my boat for the pleas- 
ure of the intercourse with other creatures of my 
kind, and for the profit of the trades which gen- 
erally accompanied these meetings. 

One day I called on two of the weaver's colony 
and found they had been too ill to work and had 
no cloth to offer in exchange. The weavers needed 
the flour I had brought; so I suggested that they 
keep the flour and settle at some future time when 
they should have been able to resume their work. 
So as a memorandum of the affair I had them write 
on a flat shell, "Payment due for six measures of 
flour. Weavers." 

And in leaving I mused to myself: Here i» 
the beginning of credit as a medium of exchange. 
Credit which is one man's trust in another, 
is a great help in the proper distribution of the 
world's products. Without credit I should have 
had to take my flour back home where I did not need 
it, since this was part of my surplus stock. Mean- 
time the weavers would have been without what 
they needed and would be able in the end to pay 



80 A New 'Robinson Crusoe 

for. But now, by means of credit, I am able to 
regard my half of this exchange as an accomplished 
fact and this part of the world's work of distribu- 
tion is completed. The other part will be completed 
when I have exchanged my credit for some com- 
modity which I want. 

Whereupon I remembered that I needed some 
carpentering on my house, so I returned to the 
weavers' island and asked : 

"Have you a carpenter in your midst who is not 
busy?" 

"Certainly," said they, "and what is more the 
carpenter owes us for his last suit of clothes." 

"That is excellent," I exclaimed, "for it enables 
me to exchange this credit for six days' services at 
carpentering; and when the labor is performed I 
will pay the carpenter with this credit. Then, in- 
deed, all will be paid." 

Which accordingly we did, and I was greatly 
impressed with the value of credit as a medium of 
exchange. 



CHAPTER XIII 

The end of the next five years saw great changes 
in our island world. In numbers we were much 
increased for there had been added two shiploads 
of refugees, or prisoners as they more properly 
should be called — victims of the revolutions which 
had gone on in Peru and Chili. Those in power 
had sent them hither, and they were set down on the 
two islands near mine — yet why not on mine I knew 
not — with no means of getting back to their native 
land and under sentence if they did so to be stood 
up against a wall and shot. For such was the 
custom in those lands. And we were now close 
to seven hundred adult men and women, not count- 
ing children which were very numerous. 

Being now so many it was difficult at first to 
secure free exchange among all who had need of 
things and who had work or goods to contribute 
to the common store; for credit will proceed only 
between those who are known one to another and 
when there are many who are strangers, and some 

possibly who for laziness or a tendency to deceive 

81 



82 A New Robinson Crusoe 

are not deserving to be trusted, exchange cannot 
proceed as it does between a smaller number who are 
all known one to another. But presently this was 
rectified by the finding of silver among the rocks 
of that island where the miners and iron workers 
dwelt. The silver was not in large quantities nor 
was it free, but it must needs be dug and smelted 
at considerable cost of labor, so that when it was 
refined and stamped into the shape of a small coin, 
each coin had cost as much in labor to produce it 
as, directed in other ways, would have produced a 
bushel of grain or the equivalent in other merchan- 
dise. But it was more convenient to carry a piece 
of silver than the grain or other merchandise, and 
the silver could be exchanged at a fixed value for 
labor or commodities and therefore was eagerly 
welcomed as a medium of exchange. By this me- 
dium strangers could do business, for the silver 
having value, it took the place of credit and all 
exchanges were made more free and simple. Grain 
which had before been the measure of value, now 
ceased to be so and merchandise was measured in 
terms of these silver coins each of which was about 
a quarter the size of an English shilling. 

And I perceived now for the first time that no 



r A New Robinson Crusoe 83 

man cares for money for itself, but for what it 
will buy. And I remembered how when I was a 
solitary exile on my island the thing which I valued 
least of those things I rescued from the wreck was 
the little hoard of gold and silver coins. Gladly 
would I have exchanged the whole for a tobacco 
pipe, or a pound of salt. But now when there were 
numerous men and women attempting to divide 
among themselves the world's labors — those labors 
by which man is fed, clothed, and sheltered — then 
it becomes of great importance that there be one 
commodities which all will value alike and all will 
accept on the same terms of exchange for what he 
or she has to give, some commodities which will 
maintain its value the same from day to day and 
year to year, which will not corrode or deteriorate 
and which can easily be transported and will have a 
mark upon it — which commodities, of course, are 
the materials, gold and silver. 

Silver alone did us very well, and exchanges went 
on freely. The worker exchanged his work or the 
product of his work for money and then exchanged 
the money for the work, or product of the work 
of others. No one cared for the money for itself. 
It was valued only for what it would command in 



84 A New Robinson Crusoe 

exchange. But everybody wanted as much money 
as he could get for his work or products, because 
this money measured his right to command the 
products or the work of others. 

And after a while I beheld another thing concern- 
ing money. For I saw the silver disappear and in 
its place were paper memoranda showing that so 
much money had been deposited in a public treasury 
and could be had by one presenting this bit of paper. 
This did away with the necessity for carrying about 
much of the silver money and only small amounts 
had to be used to meet the small exchanges. And 
the people preferred the paper so long as they knew 
the money was in safe hands and could be had on 
demand. 

I was greatly convenienced by the coining of 
money, for I had stores of merchandise which I 
had taken in exchange for which I had no immedi- 
ate need, such as cloth, tools, dressed lumber and 
all manner of building material and preserved foods. 
And these I soon disposed of for silver and of the 
latter I laid up a large store. 

And the silver coins were called marks, for that 
they most resembled such a coin of that country 
whence most of these colonists had come. 



A New Robinson Crusoe 85 

And having now much money for which I had 
no immediate use I began to inquire in my mind 
as to what use I might put it to. And how this 
was presently answered the next chapter will tell. 



CHAPTER XIV 

There came to me one from the weavers' colony 
and spoke thus: 

"We know that y ou have been prospered in your 
exchanges and hiv^e more money than any single one 
among us. N -w I have a plan by which I can make 
your money r.seful to you. I know how to construct 
a water wheel and the machinery by which the water 
wheel would turn the stones for grinding grain into 
flour. Near the house where I live is a stream with 
an excellent fall of water and if I had a thousand 
marks I could hire the labor to build a mill which 
would grind all the grain for this colony. Lend me 
the thousand marks and I will pledge you the mill 
and my personal honor that I will pay you ten 
marks each year for every hundred you lend me 
and I will eventually repay the principal sum out of 
the earnings which will come to me for grinding the 
colony's flour." 

The plan was indeed an excellent one, and my 

money was soon at work ; so that without effort on 

my part I was soon receiving each year ten marks 

86 



A New Robinson Crusoe 87 

for every hundred I had lent together with part 
of the principal sum which was coming back. 

In this again I was one of those who permit their 
possessions to be of service to others; but in a dif- 
ferent way from the case of the schooner, for that 
was my own risk and venture, while in loaning 
money I was assured of a fixed return and had no 
need to supervise the work. 

And I perceived that it was pleasanter to permit 
one's possessions to do the work than to labor 
at producing for one's self. For now I had little 
labor that it was really necessary for me to do, but 
I busied myself supervising the labor of those who 
worked for me and in doing such things as I might 
choose for increasing my fiscal strength. 

And I began to see that ownership is the basis of 
all fiscal strength — the ownership of money or the 
things that can be exchanged for money. 

And this was brought home to me strongly when 
I was visited early by a group who were without 
work, from the barren and rocky island where the 
miners lived. These desired to set up tilling opera- 
tions on my island. 

To this I said I would consent on terms usual in 
such affairs. I would rent them ten acres of ex- 
cellent land for ten marks a year the acre. 



88 A New Robinson Crusoe 

"Do you own this island?' 7 asked the leader of 
the group. 

"I do," said I, "I discovered it. I was here first. 
According to the customs of land ownership in all 
parts of the world, it is mine.' , 

"It isn't fair/' quoth a surly fellow. "No one 
ought to be allowed to own more land than he can 
himself use." 

I did not admit that what the fellow said was 
true, but stood on my rights and was fully sup- 
ported by the opinion of the other colonists. So I 
began to rent the arable parts of my domain on these 
terms. 

This was the most advantageous thing I had yet 
experienced; for now I began to receive an income 
which was far in excess of all my needs and for 
which I did no work at all. 

This opened my eyes to the advantage of owning 
lands and I began to look about for opportunities 
to secure other lands which might produce similar 
returns. And the occasion soon appeared. For one 
day I had brought a load of melons and other fruits 
to the weavers' landing ; but finding no one at hand 
and knowing that the weavers would want what I 
had brought, I put the articles ashore and hired a 
man who was fishing to mind the fruit and sell them 



A New Robinson Crusoe 89 

to any offering a fair price. The fisherman took 
charge and erecting a temporary shelter disposed of 
the stock and later made his accounts to me. 

"Surely/' said I, "this is the beginning of a mar- 
ket place. For a market place is the convenient 
spot where commodities pause on their way from 
the producer to the consumer while questions of 
want and right to share are worked out." 

And so it proved, for others later came and dis- 
played their wares for sale and a regular market 
grew up between the wharf and the dwellings of the 
weavers. 

Foreseeing which I bought all this land from the 
weavers, they gladly taking my money for what they 
could see little value in; but they did later when I 
charged rent for use of the wharf and the stalls in 
the market place, which, indeed added considerably 
to my income. 



CHAPTER XV 

My experience in disposing of the load of melons 
which had been brought to the weavers' island led 
me to reflect as follows : 

I perceive here the beginning of distribution as 
one of the tasks of the world. Necessities must not 
only be produced and transported ; they must be dis- 
tributed. And in due course distribution, like other 
labors, becomes a specialty. The loiterer whom I 
have taken from his fishing and made keeper and 
salesman of my cargo is now one of the world's dis- 
tributors. He is helping to get the product to the 
man who is to consume it. When there are so many 
consumers with so many differing wants and so 
many articles to meet them, much work must be 
done to suit the needs of all and to get all the articles 
where they are wanted. To do this work calls for 
those who specialize on this work alone. 

And I summed up thus : 

Production, transportation and distribution are 
the great labors of the world. Men work to pro- 
duce from the raw materials yielded by the earth 

90 



"A New Robinson Crusoe 91 

the things men need; and having thus produced 
them, they work to transport and distribute them. 
Without work there would be neither food, 
clothes nor shelter. By work all these are brought 
into existence — together with many other things 
which contribute merely to man's amusement or ad- 
ditional comfort. And these things are placed at 
man's disposal at the time and place most convenient 
to him. Verily work is honorable, and it is a just 
decree that he who will not work shall not eat. 

Further I observed that men have found that it 
is better to attack these undertakings with the com- 
bined labor and diversified skill of the entire com- 
munity rather than for each to undertake the per- 
formance of all things for himself. This results in 
specialization and organization, and makes neces- 
sary the exchange of products among all. For the 
specialist produces but one kind of article — though 
in quantities more than he needs — but his needs are 
of all things. Without exchange, there fore — the 
exchange of his specialty for the specialties of the 
rest — he could not live. He would not have food, 
clothes or shelter. 

Thus it happens that there must be exchange and 
to make exchange easy a common medium, such as 



92 A New Robinson Crusoe 

metai money, supplementing credit without which 
few exchanges would take place. 

And thus it happens also that the necessity that 
is upon all to resort to this thing called exchange to 
secure what all must have to live, affords an oppor- 
tunity to the person of the greater fiscal strength 
to take advantage of the person of less fiscal 
strength and to compel the latter to yield more than 
a strictly fair return for what he receives ; and the 
consequences of this are seen in the fact that all the 
less agreeable tasks of the world, and the more 
onerous ones, are performed in return for the least 
rewards. They are, indeed, performed under a sort 
of fiscal compulsion. 

Of what fiscal strength is made up, and of how 
it is lessened by competition and increased by the 
absence of competition, I have spoken. And how 
the ownership of lands and wharves, and instru- 
ments of transportation like ships are important aids 
to fiscal strength, was made more evident to me by 
each new experience. 

And now I have come to that point in my narra- 
tive where I must review briefly the happenings of 
a score of years. For it was in the twenty-fourth 
year after I was cast away that there came an end to 
my residence in this part of the earth. And the 



A New Robinson Crusoe 93 

strange happenings that then took place I shall tell 
at the proper time. 

In the years which followed, and while I was 
busily solving my fiscal problems, the colony was 
developing in many ways. The people soon got to- 
gether and built a school-house and a church on 
each island and later they built a general assembly 
hall where they could gather to discuss matters af- 
fecting the general welfare of the community. In 
order to meet expenses of this sort they agreed to 
tax themselves in proportion to their property. One 
man was chosen to settle the disputes. He was 
judge. Another to gather the taxes. He was asses- 
sor. Six were selected to draw up laws in accord 
with the wishes of a majority of the people. They 
were parliament. And a general manager for the 
community was chosen, and it was agreed to call 
him Governor. They chose a man of honesty to 
handle the community money and called him treas- 
urer. A constable was selected to put down any dis- 
turbance ; and they built a small gaol. 

And the colonists began now to seek the satisfac- 
tion of wants as well as needs. Having solved the 
problem of a regular supply of food, clothes and 
shelter with the expenditure by each man of some 
eight hours of labor daily, they began to seek also 



94 A New Robinson Crusoe 

pleasure. They paid small sums to certain of their 
number to sing and dance for them; and in time 
they paid also preachers and lecturers, and even 
printed books and a paper once a week. There were 
those who polished semi-precious stones, of which 
the islands yielded not a few, and some who tried 
their skill at painting pictures and carving statuary ; 
though with no high degree of art. And those who 
were thus engaged were in return supplied with 
necessaries by those who produced the latter. And 
in time the colony organized a small army and 
equipped a schooner with a few small cannon for a 
navy, delighting to see the soldiers drill and the 
small warship maneuver and shoot its guns. 

"I perceive," said I, observing this, "that every 
man who is used in occupations of this sort is not 
available for producing, transporting or distributing 
food, clothes or shelter. So the more we have of 
pleasure and war, the more we pay for the things 
yre all must have." 

But this troubled me not at all, for I had enough 
and to spare, and the burdening was upon the poor, 
who, by reason of their fiscal weakness, could not 
shift it from themselves. 



CHAPTER XVI 

As time went on I found it profitable to bring 
more land under cultivation. By purchasing ma- 
chinery and hiring laborers this was easy to accom- 
plish. 

I soon perceived that the greater a man's income 
is, the easier is it to add thereto; I mean without 
labor other than taking thought as to how invest- 
ments shall be made and what business is good to 
venture on. 

Seeing my prosperity my neighbors came to me 
offering to lend me money, assuming, as I take it, 
that having much I would be able certainly to pay 
it back. So that I was able, to my amusement, to 
borrow at a low rate and to lend again the same 
money at a high rate, and thus to add to my income 
with no labor whatsoever. 

And in other ways my properties were increased, 
as when the owner of a mill which I had advanced 
the money to set up, having ill fortune and being 
unable to redeem his pledge to repay the loan, I was 
compelled to take the mill ; and having set a skillful 

95 



96 A New Robinson Crusoe 

workman to manage it, I had much more from it 
than I had received when it was merely a pledge for 
the loan. And another mill having been set up near 
by I saw that it would be well to buy that also, 
thereby wiping out competition in the milling trade ; 
having done which I was able to double the charge 
for all milling done. And this, too, was much to my 
advantage. 

I had not neglected meantime to buy the lands 
about the harbor — it chanced that there was but one 
— of the islands where the iron workers dwelt; and 
as I now controlled all the harbors of the three is- 
lands, and could say what boats might or might not 
land, I readily bought the two other boats which 
had been built to compete with my schooner and thus 
controlled the carrying trade between the islands. 

The owners of the iron mines found that the 
carrying charges on their products ate up a large 
share of the profit of their labors so they were in a 
mood to listen to an offer to purchase all these prop- 
erties which I caused to be made to them through a 
discreet agent, and in that manner I became the 
owner of the mines and the iron mills. 

Some bold spirits among the iron workers were 
disposed to grumble at seeing these properties fall 
into the possession of one man, and particularly so 



A New Robinson Crusoe 97 

when wages were reduced — for having no spur of 
competition I was not compelled to pay more than 
a bare living wage. But they soon discovered that 
it was more discreet to keep their opinions to them- 
selves; for when they had been discharged they 
found it difficult to get other work. They thought 
at first they might turn to the cultivation of the soil, 
but they soon perceived that land had so increased 
in price that they were unable to buy or even to rent 
enough to keep them. So they were compelled to 
hire out by the day to the tenants who had long ago 
rented tracts on my island. 

I have spoken of the parliament which the colon- 
ists had set up to make such laws as they might need. 
This body at various times required my attention; 
for once a law was proposed which would have 
vested the ownership of the docks in the people and 
brought carrying charges under regulation. This 
I denounced as opposed to all respectable usage and 
savoring of revolution against property and I took 
pains that one of my capable and faithful employes 
should be put forward as a candidate against this 
member of the parliament and with the assistance 
of the many who were friendly to me or were bound 
to me in some business way I had no difficulty in 



98 A New Robinson Crusoe 

substituting my man for him that had put forward 
the obnoxious legislation. 

After that I gave close attention to all those put 
forward as candidates and by quietly contributing 
funds where they would be most effective was able 
to keep a parliament in office made up of men un- 
tainted by disturbing doctrines. 

In this experience it was borne in upon me that 
the foundation of all fiscal power, whether it be 
used for good or bad, is in the laws of ownership. 
For if the community had been unwilling to main- 
tain a law which said that I, by discovering an is- 
land, became owner of it, I could not have collected 
rents for vast tracts which I had leased to my neigh- 
bors. So also the law had permitted me by paying 
a trifling sum to acquire the ownership of lands 
which the community must use if it were to live, 
such as those on which the wharves were built and 
the various market sites. So, too, I was permitted 
to control by ownership the exhaustless riches of 
minerals — coal, iron and silver — which nature had 
deposited for man's use, but which these people 
could not use except with my consent. For this con- 
sent they all paid me tribute. 

And I marveled greatly that people intelligent 
enough to form laws by majority consent, should 



A New Robinson Crusoe 99 

form such laws as should cut themselves off from 
the means of livelihood and forge fiscal bonds to 
bind them to the service of a few who have the wit 
or luck to acquire fiscal strength. 

But it was not for me to tell them to change the 
laws so that lands might be free to those who would 
make them yield, or mines to those who might be 
willing to dig their contents, or harbors to the many 
who must use them. And in truth these people were 
doing only what other peoples have done for cen- 
turies ; and it is opposed to the habit of men's minds 
to think out new ways for making the state of all 
men better ; but each hopes that he may win a posi- 
tion of fiscal strength and come to live upon the 
work of others, so he lends his influence against the 
welfare of the whole and deserves the hardships 
which in practically every instance are put upon him. 

Now it happened that the Governor of the colony 
for a considerable time had been a man elected to 
the office largely by my aid. He was a man of pleas- 
ant ways and excellent intentions, but not rich, and 
he knew that what little property he had would be 
jeopardized if he should offend me. So when I in- 
formed him that it was my desire to be honored by 
this office he readily retired and I was chosen with 
no opposition. 



ioo A New Robinson Crusoe 

Before this I had enjoyed many perquisites of 
my increased wealth. I wore better clothes than the 
others; my house was larger and better furnished 
and I kept two boats for my private use together 
with a dozen servants. 

I had taken a wife from one of the best families 
in the colony, a woman of unusual personal charm 
who dutifully bore me four healthy and promising 
children. 

As Governor it was my endeavor so to administer 
the colony's affairs that I might have a favorable 
mention in the history of this island nation. To this 
end I had a Governor's palace built of a character 
suitable to the office, and a Public Library in each 
of the islands, each builded entirely at my own ex- 
pense. 

I was able to use my influence as Governor to 
keep the taxes low on lands and to distribute the 
burden among that large and useful class known as 
laborers. This, however, I did by indirection and 
without ostentation. 

My will I made about this time. For I deem it 
a matter of ordinary prudence that a man having 
property should face the certainty that one day he 
must take leave of this earthly sphere and go to that 
place which an all-wise Providence has prepared for 



A New Robinson Crusoe IOI 

those who have repented for their sins and sought 
salvation for their souls through the mediating grace 
of the only begotten Son. To continue the property, 
therefore, in the possession of my natural heirs I 
took the advice of the best lawyers in our midst and 
on their advice, a trust was arranged which was to 
last as the lawyers say "a life on a life/* which 
would be in all likelihood a half century at least; 
and the heirs were to have only the income of the 
estates, but never the principal — the income being 
now very great and sufficient for all luxuries as well 
as needs. And thus I had the satisfaction of know- 
ing that my estates would not be squandered, but 
would go on increasing in value as the community 
grew in numbers and in importance. 

But in all these matters my expectations were 
doomed to disappointment for reasons which in the 
next chapter I will relate. 



CHAPTER XVII 

It had long been my custom to set down daily the 
important happenings in my life, a habit which had 
begun in noting down the days, weeks and months 
and such things as I desired to keep a record of in 
the early years of my solitary life on my island. 
The early record was of the various expedients I 
had used to build a shelter from the elements to in- 
sure myself a supply of food and to put clothing on 
my back. How these matters were worked out when 
other human beings were near at hand presented 
problems of no less interest to my mind and these 
I have set down, too, together with such comments 
as seemed to go with them, and the whole I had pre- 
served in a considerable volume which I hoped 
might some day be read with interest by the genera- 
tions which should perpetuate my name. It was 
read, alas, by those who were not of my kin, by cer- 
tain treacherous fellows who found access by stealth 
or subterfuge to the place where it was kept — with 
what results I was presently to learn. For on the 

sixth day of October, 1686, the night being dark 

102 



r A New Robinson Crusoe 103 

and somewhat blustering with a mist and no moon 
I was suddenly set upon as I was returning to my 
house from a stroll upon the beach — the hour being 
about eight in the evening and before I had oppor- 
tunity to cry out or give an alarm or in any way 
defend myself, I was thrown to the ground, my head 
was bound with a scarf which gagged and almost 
suffocated me and when I had been securely bound 
I felt myself carried I knew not whither and laid 
down I knew not where, nor did I have any notion 
of what was happening or why until a long time 
afterward when I was released and found myself in 
the cabin of one of my pleasure boats at sea and the 
ship under a full spread of canvas. 

My captors proved to be three members of the 
island's law making body, young fellows whom I 
had known but slightly but whom I had always 
looked upon as honest and thoughtful citizens. To 
my amazed questionings they gave most amazing 
answers. 

"A revolution is taking place in the island," the 
spokesman said, "and the committee on the common 
welfare has decreed your removal." 

From which I understood that I was being taken 
out to sea to be drowned. 

"Not that," went on the leader gathering from 



104 ^ New ^Robinson Crusoe 

my expression what were my thoughts. "It is our 
hope that your removal may be accomplished with- 
out anything more serious than an adventurous trip 
which you will make to the mainland and thence 
back to England, if indeed you are so favored as to 
reach that goal. But should you return your drown- 
ing or death by some other means is decreed. In 
about an hour from now you will be transferred to 
another boat and in that you will be conveyed by 
two of our faithful patriots to some landing from 
which you will have to venture afterward by your- 
self. We will soon be back in this vessel with an 
account of an unhappy accident, namely, that while 
you were endeavoring to stay the foresail during 
a sudden shifting of the wind you fell overboard 
and before we could put the ship about and come to 
your assistance you were drowned." 

"And to what purpose," I inquired, "is all this 
mummery ?" 

"That the people may believe that you are dead 
and that by your will all the properties of which 
you have been the owner are passed to public own- 
ership." 

Saying which the speaker laid before me on the 
table a document in form like the will which I had 
caused to be drawn up ; but I noted that the date of 



'A New Robinson Crusoe 10$ 

the witnessing and the attest was of several months 
past, and that the document lacked only my signa- 
ture to make it formal. By this will all the lands 
and properties of which I stood seized were quit- 
claimed to the people of the three-island settlement ■ 
for their common use. 

"Your signature to this document will pay your 
passage to the continent," I was told "If you do 
not care to sign it the supposed drowning can be 
made a real one." 

Seeing that it would be worse than useless to re- 
sist I made a virtue of necessity and told my cap- 
tors it would make me very happy to become in this 
way the benefactor of my fellow citizens. I quickly 
signed the will. 

This matter finished, the revolutionary leader fav- 
ored me with further explanation* 

"Your diary," said he, "is one potent cause of 
these present happenings^ A servant's curiosity 
brought your writings to the attention of others 
who were curious, and to still others who were in- 
terested, and finally to those who had long sought 
for some remedy for certain difficult problems 
touching the people's welfare. For there has grown 
up in our midst this thing called poverty. In a land 
where nature has been bountiful, and there would 



106 A New Robinson Crusoe 

seem to be enough of all things for all, there have 
appeared those who did not have food nor a suffi- 
cient amount of clothes or shelter. We have found 
that work could not be had by all, and that those 
who worked were not necessarily those who pos- 
sessed. The drudgery was done for the least com- 
pensation, and many of those things which are 
produced go to the ownership and control of those 
who labor not at all." 

The speaker paused to observe the effect on me 
of his words. I assured him that what he said was 
true. Whereupon he went on as follows: 

"The reason for this unfortunate state of things* 
together with the remedy which should be applied 
we found in the diary which you left,. We perceived 
that many of these consequences flow from the 
great disparity in fiscal strength among our people; 
and the basis and substance of fiscal strength, as you 
have so clearly set forth in your writings is owner- 
ship. It is the ownership of lands over and above 
what the owner is able or willing to use which en- 
ables him to exact rent; it is the ownership of such 
public highways as harbor frontages and wharves 
which exacts added tribute ; and it is the ownership 
of nature's storehouses such as mines, water powers, 
and forests which adds to the ability of the owner 



A New Robinson Crusoe 107 

to take toll of those who must draw on these re- 
sources to maintain their lives. But unless our laws 
permitted private ownership of such properties, 
those who have thriven and grown powerful on 
such ownership would not have waxed so great. The 
fault is ours for we are supposed to make the laws 
not for the few and strong but for the many, in- 
cluding those who are weak. We, the people, have 
forged the chains which bind us to the service of 
our fiscal masters." 

What the young man said was the truth ; but im- 
agine my sensations when I had these doctrines 
hurled at me almost in the words I had set them 
down as abstract truths, thought out merely for the 
pleasure of the thinking. 

"And will you then," I asked, "abolish owner- 
ship?" For even in the extremity wherein I found 
myself I could not repress a curious interest along 
these lines. 

"A man may own what he produces," was the 
answer. 

"And when I lend the shovel I have produced, am 
I to have no compensation for its use?" 

"A shovel, yes," the revolutionist replied. "Or a 
ship. But not the gifts of God to man. Not the 
harbors or the land, or the mineral in the ground, 



108 A New Robinson Crusoe 

or the power of the running stream or the timber 
of the uncut forests. These are things that should 
belong equally to all. When ownership is limited 
and not permitted to trespass on the unused stores 
of a bountiful Providence, man may be safely left 
to own all other things. His fiscal strength will not 
then become overweening. Men will differ among 
themselves, and always there will be those who will 
have more and those who will have less. Some men 
will be thrifty and some will be improvident. Some 
will set themselves to acquire and others will acquire 
only what they need. And men still will trade, buy 
and sell. But exchanges will be between men more 
nearly equal in their fiscal strength and therefore 
each exchange will be more fair. Each party to the 
trade is more apt to profit by it. And always there 
will be opportunity for one willing to exchange his 
labor for what man needs ; for always there will be 
the measureless abundance of nature's stores to be 
converted into food, clothes and shelter for those 
who need them." 

To this long speech I listened in silence for I had 
naught to say. Indeed he was but speaking those 
things I had myself discovered and to a large extent 
set down quite clearly in my daily writings. But, 
alas, my discovery had undone me. These rebels 



A New Robinson Crusoe 109 

had discovered that the path to freedom was to be 
found along fiscal lines, and I being the great ob- 
struction in that path was now to be removed. Often 
in later years have I wondered what success at- 
tended their adventure. But my curiosity never 
was so insistent as to brave the menace of an at- 
tempt to return. I doubt not, however, these peo- 
ple found a larger measure of a practical kind of 
freedom than most people do in our larger world. 

By this time the other boat had come into hailing 
distance and in due course I was put aboard. And 
as a parting gift I was handed the flip-can which 
I had brought ashore when I landed on my island — 
this as a souvenir of the life I was leaving now 
forever. 

Six months later I was ashore at Liverpool after 
some hardships, but no adventures worthy of note 
as compared with those which I have already told. 
As to how the revolution fared in that three-island 
settlement I have never learned. 



